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. Some of her techniques are still taught in modern-dance schools across the United States and influenced many contemporary choreographers, including Alvin Ailey. “It’s about America. She is a celebrity dancer. Encyclopedia.com. 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. She also choreographed many ballets, stage shows and films, including the movies, "Stormy Weather" and "Pardon My Sarong." This initial fieldwork provided the nucleus for future researches and began a lifelong involvement with the people and dance of Haiti. In 1992, at the age of 82, Dunham went on a 47-day hunger strike to protest the treatment of Haitian boat refugees, who were fleeing their country but were turned back. 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. ." This created a rift between him and his wife's grown children that would last for years. Dancer, choreographer, director Encyclopedia.com. The increasingly desperate condition of the Haitian people prompted Dunham to turn Habitation LeClerc into a kind of unlicensed medical center, bringing basic health care to some of the poorest people on earth; and in response to the plight of thousands of Haitian refugees refused entry into the United States in the early 1990s, Dunham began a hunger strike by which she hoped to pressure the U.S. government into a more humane stand on the issue. ." States in 1943 and 1944 with Dunham’s Tropical Revue and a year later opened Carib Song on Broadway. Religion: Vaudun (Haitian voodoo). Janet Collins broke the color barrier in classical ballet when she became the first black prima ballerina to dance at…, Katharine, Duchess of Atholl, to Eleanor Roosevelt, Katharine Gibbs School: Narrative Description, Katharine Gibbs School (New York): Tabular Data, Katharine Gibbs School (New York): Narrative Description, Katharine Gibbs School (Melville): Tabular Data, Katharine Gibbs School (Melville): Narrative Description, Katharine DuPre Lumpkin and Dorothy Wolff Douglas, https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/dunham-katherine-1910, http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cocoon/ihas/html/dunham/dunham-career.html, www.pbs.org/wnet/freetodance/biographies/dunham.html, http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cocoon/ihas/html/dunham/dunham-timeline.html, https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/dunham-katherine, https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/dunham-katherine, https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/katherine-dunham, https://www.encyclopedia.com/journals/culture-magazines/dunham-katherine. Dunham is credited with teaching her students the technique of isolationism, a form of dance that emphasizes the isolation of individual body parts. The Haitian government, however, has also bestowed a number of its highest honors on Dunham for her celebration of the island’s cultural riches, and it is Haiti that occupies what time Dunham can spare from her work at PATC. Then, copy and paste the text into your bibliography or works cited list. Katherine Mary Dunham, the second child of Albert Millard and Fanny June Dunham, was born in Chicago, Illinois, on June 22, 1909. When Dunham was three years old, her mother died after a lengthy illness. She directed the Katherine Dunham School of Dance in New York, and was artist-in-residence at Southern Illinois University. Dunham built her reputation as a pioneering dancer and choreographer at a time when segregation was common in parts of the United States. She also took dance lessons and participated in theater productions there. Beckford, Ruth. The couple moved to suburban Glen Ellyn a few years later to escape the constant harassment caused by their mixed-race marriage, and it was in Glen Ellyn that Katherine Dunham spent the first few years of her life. Combining her two interests, she linked the function and form of Caribbean dance and ritual to their African progenitors. Michigan Chronicle, July 26-August 1, 2006, p. A3. Katherine Dunham, an American dancer and choreographer, was a trendsetter in African-American modern dance. Tributes to her were held in Detroit, Michigan, East St. Louis, Missouri, and Washington, D.C. ." Some Facts The impact of the Dunham show Katherine also appeared in several an the European post war gen- films: carnival of rhythms (1954) erataion was … Dance Director for “Pins & Needles” produced by I.L.G.W.U. 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). Katherine Dunham: A Biography. Although the program wasn't a success, it provided Dunham with her first taste of show business. 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. Education: University of Chicago, PhB, social anthropology, 1936; Rosenwald Fellowship studies, West Indies, 1935–36; ballet studies with Ludmila Speranzeva, Chicago, 1928–1930s. Dunham’s program, including both Caribbean and Afro-American dance routines with titles such as Barrelhouse, Floyd’s Guitar’s Blues, and Cakewalk, represented the first time black concert dancing had ever been performed in a nightclub setting. Dunham has diabetes and arthritis and uses a wheelchair. Dunham and her brother, Albert Jr., went to live with their father's sister, Lulu Dunham, in a tenement slum in Chicago, while their father tried to make a better living as a traveling salesman. In 1964 Dunham was invited by Southern Illinois University to serve as artist-in-residence for a term. Encyclopedia.com. “This isn’t just about Haiti,” Dunham maintained in People. When Dunham's father married a schoolteacher from Iowa, he reunited his family in the Illinois town of Joliet, about 70 miles from Chicago. 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. 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. Her father bought a dry cleaning business in Chicago and all four members of the family worked there, as they lived in a few rooms in back of the business. 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. 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. It has also been referred to as "Afro-Caribbean dance.". 15 Apr. 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. Dunham's unique blend of Afro-Caribbean, ballet, and modern dance captivated audiences around the world. She had … Katherine Dunham was an African-American dancer, choreographer, creator of the Dunham Technique, author, educator, anthropologist, and social activist. One of those baby-sitters, Clara Dunham, had come to Chicago with her daughter, Irene, hoping to break into show business. In high school, Dunham excelled in athletics. Her birthday was22nd June in the year 1909. . And, although she was not alone, Dunham is perhaps the best known and most influential pioneer of black dance. In Europe Dunham was praised as a dancer and choreographer, recognized as a serious anthropologist and scholar, and admired as a glamorous beauty. Dunham, who was still in high school, went with her. The year 1939 marked the beginning of Dunham’s rise to stardom. Awards: Julius Rosenwald Foundation travel grant, 1935; Rockefeller Foundation grant, 1935; Haitian Légion d'Honneur et Merite, 1968; American association for Health, Physical Education, and Recreation, Dance Division Heritage Award, 1971; Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame, inductee, 1974; Albert Schweitzer Music Award, 1979; Kennedy Center Honor, 1983; Founder of Dance in America Award, 1987; National Endowment for the Arts, National Medal of Arts, 1989; Dance Heritage Coalition, America's Irreplaceable Dance Treasure, 2000; Cuba, Fernando Ortiz International Award, 2005; National Black Theatre, Lifetime Achievement Award, 2005; Katherine Dunham National Memorial Tribute, 2006. : An Anthology of Writings by and about Katherine Dunham, University of Wisconsin, 2006. 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. 2021 . Dunham moved her company to New York City in 1939, where she became dance director of the New York Labor Stage, choreographing the labor-union musical Pins and Needles. Dunham disbanded her dance group in 1960, and made her last Broadway appearance in 1962. The African-American presence in classical ballet, triumphantly confirmed by the founding of the Dance Theater of Harlem in 1969, grew slowly…, Doris Humphrey She counseled youth as well, calming their angry spirits with her soft—but firm—voice and the power of her presence. Boldness has characterized Dunham's life and career. The Library of Congress now holds complete documentation of the Dunham Technique. Even in her last months, Dunham remained active. The group toured extensively after World War II, showing off its unique style of foot-stamping, hip-and-shoulder shaking, and primitive African dancing. 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. L’Ag’Ya —based on a fighting dance native to the island of Martinique—was written, choreographed, and directed by Dunham and featured the members of her own newly-formed Dunham Dance Company wearing authentic costumes she had brought from the Caribbean. Dance Magazine 74, no. 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. The couple moved to suburban Glen Ellyn a few years later to escape the constant harassment caused by their mixed-race marriage, and it was in Glen Ellyn that Katherine Dunham spent the first few years of her life. After helping to organize the First World Festival of Negro Arts in the African nation of Senegal, becoming good friends with the country’s president, Leopold Senghor, Dunham became increasingly involved in the rising black civil rights movement in the United States. ." 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. Now in her fifties, Dunham began to think about retiring from the stage. She returned to Southern Illinois University as a visiting professor at the Edwardsville campus, not far from East St. Louis. The dance company remained on the West Coast after the closing of Cabin in the Sky and, in the early 1940s, appeared in two motion pictures, Stormy Weather and Star-Spangled Rhythm. Through much study and time, she eventually became one of the founders of the field of dance anthropology. Dancer, choreographer, and educator. Having attended a junior college in Joliet, Illinois, Katherine Dunham follows her brother Albert … She knew that each Caribbean island had its own unique form of dance. . Retrieved April 15, 2021 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/dunham-katherine. The result was an entirely new art form, called the "Dunham technique." While there, Dunham examined the dance rhythms particular to Jamaica, Martinique, Trinidad, and Haiti. The tour was a great success, and Dunham received particularly favorable reviews in Europe. . She had owned property in Chicago, but it was sold to pay off her grown children's debts and her doctor bills. The troupe toured the United 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. 8 (August 2000). She worked briefly for the Works Progress Administration She has been called the "matriarch and queen mother of black dance.". These include the Albert Schweitzer Music Award for a life devoted to performing arts and service to humanity (1979); a Kennedy Center Honors Award (1983); the Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award (1987); and induction into the Hall of Fame of the National Museum of Dance in Saratoga Springs, New York. As long as her health allowed, Dunham maintained her activism at PATC. Yet it is through performances that dance lives on. Aschenbrenner, Joyce. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1959. Habitation LeClerc, as Dunham called the residence, would remain a place of retreat, study, and relaxation for the dancer. At the same time, Dunham teamed up with Page and Turbyfill to form what has been called the first black concert dance group, the Ballets Negre, which made its debut in 1931 at Chicago’s annual Beaux Arts Ball. Simultaneously she was preparing a new production, Tropics and Le Jazz Hot: From Haiti to Harlem. She used the grant to study African-based dances in the Caribbean. About. . In the early 1990s the vigorous Dunham made headlines around the world with a hunger strike in support of refugees from her beloved Haiti. Dunham, Katherine, A Touch of Innocence, Books for Libraries, 1980. . The sequencing of dances, the theatrical journey from the tropics to urban black America implied—in the most entertaining terms—the ethnographic realities of cultural connections. Dunham, who died at the age of 96 [in 2006], was an anthropologist and political activist, especially on behalf of the rights of black people. 2021 . Encyclopedia.com. As a young dancer and student at the University of Chicago, she chose anthropology as her course of study. Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History. 15 Apr. Dunham's rising success led to an opportunity to work with world-renowned choreographer George Balanchine on the Broadway musical Cabin in the Sky. In 1952, the management of a hotel in Brazil refused to let Dunham join her husband, John Pratt, in his hotel suite because she was black and he was white. When Dunham was three years old, her mother died after a lengthy illness. After helping to organize the First World Festival of Negro Arts in the African nation of Senegal, becoming good friends with the country's president, Leopold Senghor, Dunham became increasingly involved in the rising black civil rights movement in the United States. 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