Birth date: October 17, 1956. Dancers are frequently instructed to place weight on the balls of their feet, lengthen their lumbar and cervical spines, and breathe from the abdomen and not the chest. While in Haiti, she hasn't only studied Vodun rituals, but also participated and became a mambo, female high priest in the Vodun religion. In 19341936, Dunham performed as a guest artist with the ballet company of the Chicago Opera. The show created a minor controversy in the press. 5 Katherine Dunham facts - Katherine dunham Her mother passed away when Katherine was only 3 years old. In 2000 Katherine Dunham was named America's irreplaceable Dance Treasure. 10 Facts About Katherine Johnson - Mental Floss As a dancer and choreographer, Katherine Dunham (1910-2002) wowed audiences in the 1930s and 1940s when she combined classical ballet with African rhythms to create an exciting new dance style. Having completed her undergraduate work at the University of Chicago and decided to pursue a performing career rather than academic studies, Dunham revived her dance ensemble. Katherine Dunham Fused Together Dance and Anthropology Katherine Dunham facts for kids. In 1967 she officially retired, after presenting a final show at the famous Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York. Divine Technique: Katherine Dunham Archive - Selkirk Auctioneers In 1976, Dunham was guest artist-in-residence and lecturer for Afro-American studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Early in 1947 Dunham choreographed the musical play Windy City, which premiered at the Great Northern Theater in Chicago. About that time Dunham met and began to work with John Thomas Pratt, a Canadian who had become one of America's most renowned costume and theatrical set designers. Katherine Dunham in a photograph from around 1945. This initiative drew international publicity to the plight of the Haitian boat-people and U.S. discrimination against them. On February 22, 2022, Selkirk will offer a unique, one-lot auction titled, Divine Technique: Katherine Dunham Ephemera And Documents. Also that year they appeared in the first ever, hour-long American spectacular televised by NBC, when television was first beginning to spread across America. As this show continued its run at the Windsor Theater, Dunham booked her own company in the theater for a Sunday performance. Katherine Dunham (born June 22, 1909) [1] [2] was an American dancer, choreographer, and anthropologist. used throughout the world choros, rite de passage, los Idies, and. A key reason for this choice was because she knew that through dance, her work would be able to be accessed by a wider array of audiences; more so than if she continued to limit her work within academia. [8], Despite her choosing dance, Dunham often voiced recognition of her debt to the discipline: "without [anthropology] I don't know what I would have done.In anthropology, I learned how to feel about myself in relation to other people. 8 Katherine Dunham facts. Q. Katherine Mary Dun ham was an African-American dancer, choreographer, author, educator, anthropologist, and social activist. Throughout her career, Dunham occasionally published articles about her anthropological research (sometimes under the pseudonym of Kaye Dunn) and sometimes lectured on anthropological topics at universities and scholarly societies.[27]. From the solar system to the world economy to educational games, Fact Monster has the info kids are seeking. [15], In 1935, Dunham was awarded travel fellowships from the Julius Rosenwald and Guggenheim foundations to conduct ethnographic fieldwork in Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, and Trinidad studying the dance forms of the Caribbean. 1910-2006. This is where, in the late 1960s, global dance legend Katherine Dunham put down roots and taught the arts of the African diaspora to local children and teenagers. Katherine Dunham - Author, Career, Childhood - Katherine Dunham Biography Katherine Dunham was an American dancer and choreographer, credited to have brought the influence of Africa and the Caribbean into American dance . He has released six stand-up specials and one album of Christmas songs. For almost 30 years she maintained the Katherine Dunham Dance Company, the only self-supported American black dance troupe at that time. Such visitors included ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax, novelist and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston, Robert Redfield, Bronisaw Malinowski, A.R. and creative team that lasted. In 1948, she opened A Caribbean Rhapsody, first at the Prince of Wales Theatre in London, and then took it to the Thtre des Champs-lyses in Paris. Dunham was active in human rights causes, and in 1992 she staged a 47-day hunger strike to highlight the plight of Haitian refugees. Her mission was to help train the Senegalese National Ballet and to assist President Leopold Senghor with arrangements for the First Pan-African World Festival of Negro Arts in Dakar (196566). Corrections? While a student at the University of Chicago, Dunham also performed as a dancer, ran a dance school, and earned an early bachelor's degree in anthropology. These exercises prepare the dancers for African social and spiritual dances[31] that are practiced later in the class including the Mahi,[32] Yonvalou,[33] and Congo Paillette. "Katherine Dunham: Decolonizing Anthropology through African American Dance Pedagogy." teaches us about the impact Katherine Dunham left on the dance community & on the world. He lived on 5 January 1931 and passed away on 1 December 1989. Not only did Dunham shed light on the cultural value of black dance, but she clearly contributed to changing perceptions of blacks in America by showing society that as a black woman, she could be an intelligent scholar, a beautiful dancer, and a skilled choreographer. (She later took a Ph.D. in anthropology.) Dunham herself was quietly involved in both the Voodoo and Orisa communities of the Caribbean and the United States, in particular with the Lucumi tradition. Barrelhouse. The committee voted unanimously to award $2,400 (more than $40,000 in today's money) to support her fieldwork in the Caribbean. Jobson, Ryan Cecil. The Dunham troupe toured for two decades, stirring audiences around the globe with their dynamic and highly theatrical performances. With Dunham in the sultry role of temptress Georgia Brown, the show ran for 20 weeks in New York. Dunham, Katherine Mary (1909-2006) By Das, Joanna Dee. 35 Katherine Dunham Quotes | Kidadl [59] She ultimately chose to continue her career in dance without her master's degree in anthropology. As Wendy Perron wrote, "Jazz dance, 'fusion,' and the search for our cultural identity all have their antecedents in Dunham's work as a dancer, choreographer, and anthropologist. It next moved to the West Coast for an extended run of performances there. Example. Video. At the height of her career in the 1940s and 1950s, Dunham was renowned throughout Europe and Latin America and was widely popular in the United States. Featuring lively Latin American and Caribbean dances, plantation dances, and American social dances, the show was an immediate success. Episode 5 of Break the FACTS! Dancer Born in Illinois #12. [26] This work was never produced in Joplin's lifetime, but since the 1970s, it has been successfully produced in many venues. Dunham also received a grant to work with Professor Melville Herskovits of Northwestern University, whose ideas about retention of African culture among African Americans served as a base for her research in the Caribbean. Interesting facts. The Katherine Dunham Museum: Saving the Legacy of a True Renaissance Woman ", "Kaiso! Katherine Dunham and the dances of the African diaspora Katherine Mary Dunham (June 22, 1909 - May 21, 2006) was an American dancer, choreographer, creator of the Dunham Technique, author, educator, anthropologist, and social activist. Katherine Dunham | Biography, Dance, Technique, Dance - Britannica In 1963, Dunham became the first African-American to choreograph for the Metropolitan Opera. She graduated from Joliet Central High School in 1928, where she played baseball, tennis, basketball, and track; served as vice-president of the French Club, and was on the yearbook staff. While a student at the University of Chicago, she formed a dance group that performed in concert at the Chicago Worlds Fair in 1934 and with the Chicago Civic Opera company in 193536. Known for her many innovations, Dunham developed a dance pedagogy, later named the Dunham Technique, a style of movement and exercises based in traditional African dances, to support her choreography. Using some ballet vernacular, Dunham incorporates these principles into a set of class exercises she labeled as "processions". most important pedagogues original work which includes :Batuada. In addition, Dunham conducted special projects for African American high school students in Chicago; was artistic and technical director (196667) to the president of Senegal; and served as artist-in-residence, and later professor, at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, and director of Southern Illinoiss Performing Arts Training Centre and Dynamic Museum in East St. Louis, Illinois. This was followed by television spectaculars filmed in London, Buenos Aires, Toronto, Sydney, and Mexico City. [15] It was in a lecture by Redfield that she learned about the relationship between dance and culture, pointing out that Black Americans had retained much of their African heritage in dances. [5] She had an older brother, Albert Jr., with whom she had a close relationship. In 1947 it was expanded and granted a charter as the Katherine Dunham School of Cultural Arts. USA. The first work, entitled A Touch of Innocence: Memoirs of Childhood, was published in 1959. Katherine Mary Dunham was born in Chicago in 1909. The recipient of numerous awards, Dunham received a Kennedy Center Honor in 1983 and the National Medal of Arts in 1989. You dance because you have to. [50] Both Dunham and the prince denied the suggestion. Its premiere performance on December 9, 1950, at the Teatro Municipal in Santiago, Chile,[39][40] generated considerable public interest in the early months of 1951. Keep reading for more such interesting quotes at Kidadl!) Dunham turned anthropology into artistry - University of Chicago News Gender: Female. A continuation based on her experiences in Haiti, Island Possessed, was published in 1969. The family moved to Joliet, Illinois when her father remarried. Dancer, anthropologist, social worker, activist, author. International Ladies' Garment Workers Union, First Pan-African World Festival of Negro Arts, National Museum of Dance's Mr. & Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney Hall of Fame, "Katherine Dunham | African American dancer, choreographer, and anthropologist", "Timeline: The Katherine Dunham Collection at the Library of Congress (Performing Arts Encyclopedia, The Library of Congress)", "Special Presentation: Katherine Dunham Timeline". [4], Katherine Mary Dunham was born on 22 June 1909 in a Chicago hospital. "In introducing authentic African dance-movements to her company and audiences, Dunhamperhaps more than any other choreographer of the timeexploded the possibilities of modern dance expression.". A carriage house on the grounds is to . Katherine Dunham: The Artist as Activist | Center for the Humanities Later that year she took her troupe to Mexico, where their performances were so popular that they stayed and performed for more than two months. In her biography, Joyce Aschenbrenner (2002), credits Ms Dunham as the "matriarch and queen mother of black dance", and describes her work as: "fundamentally . Dunham early became interested in dance. A photographic exhibit honoring her achievements, entitled Kaiso! Years later, after extensive studies and initiations in Haiti,[21] she became a mambo in the Vodun religion. Based on this success, the entire company was engaged for the 1940 Broadway production Cabin in the Sky, staged by George Balanchine and starring Ethel Waters. Book. Choreographer. Search input Search submit button. The program included courses in dance, drama, performing arts, applied skills, humanities, cultural studies, and Caribbean research. She felt it was necessary to use the knowledge she gained in her research to acknowledge that Africanist esthetics are significant to the cultural equation in American dance. ", Scholar of the arts Harold Cruse wrote in 1964: "Her early and lifelong search for meaning and artistic values for black people, as well as for all peoples, has motivated, created opportunities for, and launched careers for generations of young black artists Afro-American dance was usually in the avant-garde of modern dance Dunham's entire career spans the period of the emergence of Afro-American dance as a serious art. Glory Van Scott and Jean-Lon Destin were among other former Dunham dancers who remained her lifelong friends. She has been called the "matriarch and queen mother of black dance."[2]. Alvin Ailey later produced a tribute for her in 198788 at Carnegie Hall with his American Dance Theater, entitled The Magic of Katherine Dunham. Katherine Dunham (1909-2006) is revered as one of the great pillars of American dance history. : Writings by and About Katherine Dunham. Katherine Dunham and John Pratt married in 1949 to adopt Marie-Christine, a French 14-month-old baby. Katherine Dunham got an early bachelor's degree in anthropology as a student at the University of Chicago. She decided to live for a year in relative isolation in Kyoto, Japan, where she worked on writing memoirs of her youth. Based on her research in Martinique, this three-part performance integrated elements of a Martinique fighting dance into American ballet. Katherine Dunham Biography for Kids - lottie.com Dunham was born in Chicago on June 22, 1909. Katherine Dunham, pseudonym Kaye Dunn, (born June 22, 1909, Glen Ellyn, Illinois, U.S.died May 21, 2006, New York, New York), American dancer and choreographer who was a pioneer in the field of dance anthropology. The Washington Post called her "dancer Katherine the Great." Dunham saved the day by arranging for the company to be paid to appear in a German television special, Karibische Rhythmen, after which they returned to the United States. "Kaiso! [21] This style of participant observation research was not yet common within the discipline of anthropology. In 1928, while still an undergraduate, Dunham began to study ballet with Ludmilla Speranzeva, a Russian dancer who had settled in Chicago, after having come to the United States with the Franco-Russian vaudeville troupe Le Thtre de la Chauve-Souris, directed by impresario Nikita Balieff. This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Katherine-Dunham, The Kennedy Center - Biography of Katherine Dunham, Katherine Dunham - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). 2023 The HistoryMakers. ((Photographer unknown, Courtesy of Missouri History Museum Photograph and Prints collection. Through much study and time, she eventually became one of the founders of the field of dance anthropology. She also developed the Dunham Technique, a method of movement to support her dance works. Fighting, Alive, Have Faith. Dunham, Katherine | FactMonster Digital Library. Katherine Dunham. ", While in Europe, she also influenced hat styles on the continent as well as spring fashion collections, featuring the Dunham line and Caribbean Rhapsody, and the Chiroteque Franaise made a bronze cast of her feet for a museum of important personalities.". Katherine Dunham died on May 21 2006. After noticing that Katherine enjoyed working and socializing with people, her brother suggested that she study Anthropology. New York City, U.S. She was born on June 22, 1909 in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, a small suburb of Chicago, to Albert Millard Dunham, a tailor and dry cleaner, and his wife, Fanny June Dunham. Dunham considered some really important and interesting issues, like how class and race issues translate internationally, being accepted into new communities, different types of being black, etc. [2] Most of Dunham's works previewed many questions essential to anthropology's postmodern turn, such as critiquing understandings of modernity, interpretation, ethnocentrism, and cultural relativism. 10 Facts About Catherine Parr | History Hit Stormy Weather is a 1943 American musical film produced and released by 20th Century Fox, adapted by Frederick J. Jackson, Ted Koehler and H.S. Here are some interesting facts about Alvin Ailey for you: Facts about Alvin Ailey 1: the popular modern dance He had been a promising philosophy professor at Howard University and a protg of Alfred North Whitehead. Dunhams writings, sometimes published under the pseudonym Kaye Dunn, include Katherine Dunhams Journey to Accompong (1946), an account of her anthropological studies in Jamaica; A Touch of Innocence (1959), an autobiography; Island Possessed (1969); and several articles for popular and scholarly journals. Then she traveled to Martinique and to Trinidad and Tobago for short stays, primarily to do an investigation of Shango, the African god who was still considered an important presence in West Indian religious culture. Katherine Dunham, it includes photographs highlighting the many dimensions of Dunham's life and work. Receiving a post graduate academic fellowship, she went to the Caribbean to study the African diaspora, ethnography and local dance. Dancer, choreographer, composer and songwriter, educated at the University of Chicago. [22] Katherine Dunham Helped Teach the World to Dance : NPR The Katherine Dunham Museum is located at 1005 Pennsylvania Avenue, East St. Louis, Illinois. Who Was Katherine Dunham??? by Adrianne Hoopes - Prezi After the 1968 riots following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., Dunham encouraged gang members in the ghetto to come to the center to use drumming and dance to vent their frustrations. She directed the Katherine Dunham School of Dance in New York, and was artist-in-residence at Southern Illinois University. Dunham early became interested in dance. By Renata Sago. There, her father ran a dry-cleaning business.[8]. [3] Dunham was an innovator in African-American modern dance as well as a leader in the field of dance anthropology, or ethnochoreology. Named Marie-Christine Dunham Pratt, she was their only child. The critics acknowledged the historical research she did on dance in ancient Egypt, but they were not appreciative of her choreography as staged for this production.[25]. Died On : May 21, 2006. One of the most significant dancers, artists, and anthropologic figures of the 20th century, Katherine Dunham defied racial and gender boundaries during a . Over her long career, she choreographed more than ninety individual dances. "[48] During her protest, Dick Gregory led a non-stop vigil at her home, where many disparate personalities came to show their respect, such Debbie Allen, Jonathan Demme, and Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam. About Miss Dunham - Katherine Dunham Centers for Arts and Humanities This concert, billed as Tropics and Le Hot Jazz, included not only her favorite partners Archie Savage and Talley Beatty, but her principal Haitian drummer, Papa Augustin. Both remained close friends of Dunham for many years, until her death. Birth Year: 1956. All rights reserved. In Hollywood, Dunham refused to sign a lucrative studio contract when the producer said she would have to replace some of her darker-skinned company members. She was likely named after Catherine of Aragon. Katherine Dunham: Dance and the African Diaspora - Goodreads 4 (December 2010): 640642. Fighting for Katherine Dunham's Dream in East St. Louis Although it was well received by the audience, local censors feared that the revealing costumes and provocative dances might compromise public morals. In the 1970s, scholars of Anthropology such as Dell Hymes and William S. Willis began to discuss Anthropology's participation in scientific colonialism. Born in Glen Ellyn, IL #6. Dunham is a ventriloquist comedian and uses seven different puppets in his act, known by his fans as the "suitcase posse." His first Comedy Central Presents special premiered in 2003. He started doing stand-up comedy in the late 1980s. 2 (2012): 159168. The incident was widely discussed in the Brazilian press and became a hot political issue. [14] Redfield, Herskovits, and Sapir's contributions to cultural anthropology, exposed Dunham to topics and ideas that inspired her creatively and professionally. [20] She also became friends with, among others, Dumarsais Estim, then a high-level politician, who became president of Haiti in 1949. [51] The couple had officially adopted their foster daughter, a 14-month-old girl they had found as an infant in a Roman Catholic convent nursery in Fresnes, France. Katherine Dunham in 1956. The following year, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson nominated Dunham to be technical cultural advisera sort of cultural ambassadorto the government of Senegal in West Africa. The following year, she moved to East St. Louis, where she opened the Performing Arts Training Center to help the underserved community. Her dance career was interrupted in 1935 when she received funding from the Rosenwald Foundation which allowed her to travel to Jamaica, Martinique, Trinidad, and Haiti for eighteen months to explore each country's respective dance cultures. "My job", she said, "is to create a useful legacy. A Short Danceography: Katherine Dunham - YouTube As a graduate student in anthropology in the mid-1930s, she conducted dance research in the Caribbean. [61][62][63][64] During this time, in addition to Dunham, numerous Black women such as Zora Neal Hurston, Caroline Bond Day, Irene Diggs, and Erna Brodber were also working to transform the discipline into an anthropology of liberation: employing critical and creative cultural production.[54]. Dunham also created the well-known Dunham Technique [1]. Katherine Mary Dunham (also known as Kaye Dunn, June 22, 1909 - May 21, 2006) was an American dancer, choreographer, author, educator, and social activist. Mae C. Jemison: First African American Female Astronaut - Biography Her popular books are Island Possessed (1969), Touch of Innocence (1959), Dances of Haiti (1983), Kaiso! Vintage Dancers You Should Know: Katherine Dunham A dance choreographer. Intrigued by this theory, Dunham began to study African roots of dance and, in 1935, she traveled to the Caribbean for field research. Best Known For: Mae C. Jemison is the . She Learned From Katherine Dunham. At 93, She's Teaching Her Technique Marlon Brando frequently dropped in to play the bongo drums, and jazz musician Charles Mingus held regular jam sessions with the drummers. They were stranded without money because of bad management by their impresario. Alvin Ailey, who stated that he first became interested in dance as a professional career after having seen a performance of the Katherine Dunham Company as a young teenager of 14 in Los Angeles, called the Dunham Technique "the closest thing to a unified Afro-American dance existing.". Why was Katherine Dunham called the mother of African American dance Katherine Dunham Facts for Kids | KidzSearch.com "Between Primitivism and Diaspora: The Dance Performances of Josephine Baker, Zora Neale Hurston, and Katherine Dunham".