One of the first modern dance choreographers, American Doris Humphrey (1895-1958) played a large role in determining th…, Dancer, choreographer, teacher Among her achievements was her resourcefulness in keeping her company going without any government funding. (April 15, 2021). Encyclopedia.com. In 1964 Dunham was invited by Southern Illinois University to serve as artist-in-residence for a term. For the next ten years many African-American dancers of the next generation studied at her school, then passed on Dunham's technique to their students, situating it in dance mainstream (teachers such as Syvilla Fort, Talley Beatty, Lavinia Williams, Walter Nicks, Hope Clark, Vanoye Aikens, and Carmencita Romero; the Dunham technique has always been taught at the Alvin Ailey studios). . Shortly thereafter, the company was hired to perform at New York's Windsor Theater, for which Dunham created and starred in Tropics and Le Jazz Hot. It has also been referred to as "Afro-Caribbean dance.". She used the grant to study African-based dances in the Caribbean. Dancer, choreographer, composer and songwriter, educated at the University of Chicago. Dunham brought her first big show, called Tropics and Le Jazz Hot, to New York in 1940. Within the “Cite this article” tool, pick a style to see how all available information looks when formatted according to that style. ." )– By the late 1990s, Dunham was widowed and was living in near destitution near the St. Louis area. "This isn't just about Haiti," Dunham maintained in People. Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History. Dunham was attached to Haiti, where she had studied as a young anthropologist, focusing her college thesis on Haitian dance. The university atmosphere challenged Dunham to reconcile her scholarly interest in anthropology with her love of dance, and she responded by writing a bachelor's dissertation on the use of dance in primitive ritual. Her mother was the assistant principal at one of the larger Chicago high schools, and, for a while, the Dunham family was prosperous and happy. Dunham did not ignore the separation of the races to advance her career. This is a clip of Katherine Dunham as Odette along with her company in Casbah (1948). She knew that each Caribbean island had its own unique form of dance. According to Jack Anderson in the New York Times, Dunham once remarked, "Judging from reactions, the dancing of my group is called anthropology in New Haven, sex in Boston and in Rome—art!". . She became an initiate of the voodoo religion and later wrote three books based on her experiences in the Caribbean: Journey to Accompong was published in 1946, followed a year later by The Dances of Haiti, and, in 1969, Island Possessed. Mother Died. In 1991 and 1992, the U.S. Coast Guard intercepted some 35,000 Haitian refugees as they tried to enter the United States. Contemporary Black Biography. She had … Encyclopedia of World Biography. She performed a confluence of both the cultures and combined classical American ballet with African rhythms to create an exciting new dance style. Katherine Dunham founded the first American black dance company and opened her own school of dance in New York in 1944. "Katherine Dunham In 1992 Dunham went on a 47-day hunger strike to protest the exclusionary U.S. policy toward Haitian refugees. Following the success of L’Ag’Ya, she and her company were invited to share a nightclub stage with Duke Ellington and his orchestra at Chicago’s Sherman Hotel. Contemporary Black Biography. Both shows were well received by the public and press, and Dunham was beginning to make a name for herself. Dunham wanted to discover exactly what that common denominator was and which dance moves had come from Africa. She directed the Katherine Dunham School of Dance in New York, and was artist-in-residence at Southern Illinois University. Dancer, choreographer, and anthropologist Katherine Dunham was born on June 22, 1910, in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, a small suburb of Chicago, to Fanny June (Guillaume) and Albert Millard Dunham. Interesting facts. The Library of Congress received a grant to support the Katherine Dunham Legacy Project, which has grown to become the most comprehensive repository of information about Dunham's multi-faceted career and artifacts from her dance productions and travels. Known as the "Matriarch of Black Dance," Katherine Dunham, in the 1930s, founded the first major black modern dance company in the United States. Martin, Jonathan "Dunham, Katherine 1910(? Her nickname was Dunham Katherine Mary. Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. When Dunham's father married a schoolteacher from Iowa, he reunited his family in the Illinois town of Joliet, about 70 miles from Chicago. Over the course of her lifetime, Dunham used her position to fight against social injustices, particularly racial segregation. The Missouri Historical Society held a vast collection of items from Dunham's career. "Dunham, Katherine Contemporary Black Biography. In 1964 Dunham was invited by Southern Illinois University to serve as artist-in-residence for a term. Katherine Dunham - Biography. Dunham began attending junior college at the age of 17. . Dunham earned a doctorate in anthropology, but her love for dancing prevailed. Pratt helped manage Dunham's career and did design work for the troupe. Katherine Mary Dunham, the second child of Albert Millard and Fanny June Dunham, was born in Chicago on June 22, probably in the year 1910. In the late 1940s Dunham and her troupe made their first overseas tour, taking Dunham's Bal Negre and New Tropical Revue to Mexico, England, and Europe. In Detroit the Dunham Legacy Project hoped to preserve and perpetuate her teachings through the development of a school. “It’s about America. Her father, a tailor and dry cleaner, was black, while her mother was French Canadian. Family Life. Sommer, Sally "Dunham, Katherine With the help of her brother, who was then attending the University of Chicago on scholarship, Katherine gradually freed herself of her father’s influence. In the meantime, Dunham had returned to Haiti in 1949 to buy a villa, located near the capital of Port au Prince, that had originally been owned by Pauline Bonaparte, the sister of Napoleon I of France. and creative team that lasted. Habitation LeClerc, as Dunham called the residence, would remain a place of retreat, study, and relaxation for the dancer. Dunham called the East St. Louis ghetto her home from 1969 until she moved to an assisted living facility in New York City in 1999. "Dunham, Katherine She died on May 21, 2006, in an assisted-living facility in New York City. Henceforth based in New York City, Dunham soon opened the Dunham School of Dance and Theater in Manhattan. In 1940 Dunham and her company appeared in the black Broadway musical Cabin in the Sky, staged by George Balanchine, in which Dunham played the sultry siren Georgia Brown—a character related to Dunham's other seductress, "Woman with a Cigar," from her solo "Shore Excursion" in Tropics. At an early age, Dunham became interested in dance. Encyclopedia.com. She was born on June 22, 1909 (died on May 21, 2006, she was 96 years old) as Katherine Mary Dunham. Henceforth based in New York City, Dunham soon opened the Dunham School of Dance and Theater in Manhattan. Pratt, a white American of Canadian birth, was the chief designer for Dunham’s shows throughout her career, and the couple remained happily married until Pratt’s death in 1986. Albert Jr., who was valedictorian of his senior class, received a scholarship and went away to college, against the wishes of his father. 15 Apr. When Dunham was three, her mother died. She got a job in the Chicago Public Library system, continued the dance classes she had been taking for years, and at the age of 18 joined Albert Jr. at the University of Chicago. . To an enthusiastic but all-white audience in the South, she made an after-performance speech, saying she could never play there again until it was integrated. 2021 . Encyclopedia of World Biography. The other librarians refused to eat lunch with her because she was black. Less happily, 1949 was also the year in which Dunham's much loved brother, Albert Jr., died, followed by their father in the same year. Her friends moved her to New York to help provide care for her. Katherine Dunham’s long and remarkable life has spanned the fields of anthropology, dance, theater, and inner-city social work. Dunham, Katherine. She had … It was in the household of her Aunt Lulu that Katherine Dunham was first exposed to the joys of music and dance, as the Dunham side of her family was crowded with performers of every kind. The Dunham Dance Company also became the subject of a short film called Carnival of Rhythm, produced by Warner Brothers. Katherine Dunham, Actress: Star Spangled Rhythm. . In 1945 Dunham opened the Dunham School of Dance and Theater (sometimes called the Dunham School of Arts and Research) in Manhattan. Dunham aptly called her spectacles "revues." On top of it all, she became the first black choreographer at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. Katherine Dunham and Dance Company performed Tropics Le Jazz “Hot”, College Inn Panther Room, Hotel Sherman, Chicago. When Dunham was three years old, her mother died after a lengthy illness. She attended the University of Chicago on scholarship (B.A., social anthropology, 1936), where she was inspired by the work of anthropologists Robert Redfield and Melville Herskovits, who stressed the importance of the survival of African culture and ritual in understanding African-American culture. At the school, disadvantaged children can learn classical ballet, martial arts, the Dunham technique, foreign languages and, most importantly, self-discipline. The couple also had a daughter, Marie Christine, adopted in 1951 at the age of four from a Catholic nursery in France. The work made Dunham the first African American to choreograph for the Met. However, her father began demanding that she spend more time working at the dry cleaners, leaving her very little time for her extra-curricular activities. The Library of Congress now holds complete documentation of the Dunham Technique. (With George Balanchine) Cabin in the Sky, 1940. It was the first time in 30 years that an African American had been given the honor of choreographing at the famed New York opera. Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History. Fanny Dunham had been married once before, to a man whose last name was Taylor. As a young man Albert Dunham moved from Memphis, Tennessee, to Chicago to work as a tailor and drycleaner while also pursuing a career as a jazz guitarist. She passed the exam, graduated from junior college and began working at the Hamilton Park Branch Library, which was in a white, middle-class, suburban district of the city. With L'Ag'Ya and Tropics and Le Jazz Hot: From Haiti to Harlem, Dunham revealed her magical mix of dance and theater—the essence of "the Dunham touch"—a savvy combination of authentic Caribbean dance and rhythms with the heady spice of American showbiz. Jesse Jackson; entertainer, author, and health and fitness proponent Dick Gregory; and the recently deposed Haitian president, J. Bertrand Aristide. (1987). Dancer, choreographer, director Based on a Martinique folktale (ag'ya is a Martinique fighting dance), L'Ag'Ya is a seminal work, displaying Dunham's blend of exciting dance-drama and authentic African-Caribbean material. At an early age,Katherine Dunham was already singing at her church. East St. Louis was a violent city in the revolutionary climate of the late 1960s, but Dunham went about her business with a calm courage that impressed all who met her. Perron, Wendy. In her 1943 Tropical Revue, she recycled material from the 1939 revue and added new dances, such as the balletic "Choros" (based on formal Brazilian quadrilles) and "Rites de Passage," which depicted puberty rituals so explicitly sexual that the dance was banned in Boston. Refer to each style’s convention regarding the best way to format page numbers and retrieval dates. Dancer, choreographer, and educator. New York: Marcel Dekker, 1979. In 1967, Dunham founded the Performing Arts Training Center in East St. Louis, setting up a dance program for disadvantaged youth with the hopes she could use art to keep youngsters from violence and gangs. East St. Louis was a violent city in the revolutionary climate of the late 1960s, but Dunham went about her business with a calm courage that impressed all who met her. However, because she was experiencing financial Dunham had one of the most successful dance careers in American and European theater of the 20th century, and directed her own dance company for many years. Katherine Dunham: A Biography. movement and expression. Dunham, Katherine, A Touch of Innocence, Books for Libraries, 1980. Encyclopedia.com. Her most critically acclaimed revue was her 1946 Bal Nègre, containing another Dunham dance favorite, "Shango," based directly on vodoun ritual. Aschenbrenner, Joyce. In 1951 Dunham premiered Southland, an hour-long ballet about lynching, though it was only performed in Chile and Paris. Tropics and Le Jazz Hot: From Haiti to Harlem incorporated dances from the West Indies as well as from Cuba and Mexico, while the "Le Jazz Hot" section featured early black American social dances, such as the juba, cakewalk, ballin' the jack, and strut. In 1935 Dunham received a Julius Rosenwald Foundation grant to study the dances of the Caribbean Islands, where she spent 18 months, mainly in Haiti and Jamaica. Her school was an influential center of black dance that welcomed all. To help pay for her education, she opened a dance school in 1930. Please use the form below if you have a comment on the facts. In 1937–1938 as dance director of the Negro Unit of the Federal Theater Project in Chicago, she made dances for Emperor Jones and Run Lil' Chillun, and presented her first version of L'Ag'Ya on January 27, 1938. 8 (August 2000). Their marriage ended in divorce and they had three children together: Louise and Fanny June (Taylor) Weir, who had families of their own by the time Dunham was born, and a son, Henry, who was mentally disabled. (April 15, 2021). Katherine Dunham always had an interest in dance and anthropology so her main goal in life was to combine them. Within a few short years the school was given a state charter and had more than 300 pupils. In fact, many actors were eager to learn from her … ." Katherine Dunham had enough talent in her -- as a singer, dancer, director, writer, and producer -- for any three people, and she also managed to work in a significant contribution as a rights activist in a career that started in music and dance and lasted for 60 years. Even in her last months, Dunham remained active. In 1967 she opened the Katherine Dunham Centers for the Arts and Humanities. There she studied anthropology while also beginning to teach dance, renting and living in a tiny studio near the University's South Side campus. Legendary dancer, choreographer and anthropologist Katherine Dunham was born June 22, 1909, to an African American father and French-Canadian mother who died when she was young. She directed and choreographed a production of the opera Faust, made many good friends, and parted from the university with a feeling that it might figure in her long-range retirement goals. Yet it is through performances that dance lives on. After her mother died when she was 4, she and her brother, Albert Jr., moved in with relatives as their father worked as a salesman. Katherine Mary Dunham was born and raised in Joliet, IL, the daughter of a local small businessman and a school teacher. During this same period, she and her husband adopted their daughter, Marie Christine. 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