Katherine Dunham was a rebel among rebels. Charm Dance from "L'Ag'Ya". He lived on 5 January 1931 and passed away on 1 December 1989. 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. Much of the literature calls upon researchers to go beyond bureaucratic protocols to protect communities from harm, but rather use their research to benefit communities that they work with. Example. Video. Gender: Female. ", 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.". Kaiso is an Afro-Caribbean term denoting praise. From the 40s to the 60s, Dunham and her dance troupe toured to 57 countries of the world. Alvin Ailey later produced a tribute for her in 198788 at Carnegie Hall with his American Dance Theater, entitled The Magic of Katherine Dunham. Transforming Anthropology 20, no. The Washington Post called her "dancer Katherine the Great." [36] Her classes are described as a safe haven for many and some of her students even attribute their success in life to the structure and artistry of her technical institution. THE DIGITAL REPOSITORY FOR THE BLACK EXPERIENCE. While in Haiti, she hasn't only studied Vodun rituals, but also participated and became a mambo, female high priest in the Vodun religion. Somewhat later, she assisted him, at considerable risk to her life, when he was persecuted for his progressive policies and sent in exile to Jamaica after a coup d'tat. It opened in Chicago in 1933, with a black cast and with Page dancing the title role. She taught dance lessons to help pay for her education at the University of Chicago. The program she created runs to this day at the Katherine Dunham Centers for Arts and Humanities, revolutionizing lives with dance and culture. Chin, Elizabeth. "What Dunham gave modern dance was a coherent lexicon of African and Caribbean styles of movementa flexible torso and spine, articulated pelvis and isolation of the limbs, a polyrhythmic strategy of movingwhich she integrated with techniques of ballet and modern dance." Later Dunham established a second home in Senegal, and she occasionally returned there to scout for talented African musicians and dancers. The group performed Dunham's Negro Rhapsody at the Chicago Beaux Arts Ball. Born in 1909 during the turn of the century Victorian era in the small town of Glen Ellyn, Illinois, she became one of the first dance anthropologists, started the first internationally-touring pre-dominantly black dance company . She arranged a fundraising cabaret for a Methodist Church, where she did her first public performance when she was 15 years old. During these years, the Dunham company appeared in some 33 countries in Europe, North Africa, South America, Australia, and East Asia. "Katherine Dunham's Dance as Public Anthropology. In 1963 Dunham was commissioned to choreograph Aida at New York's Metropolitan Opera Company, with Leontyne Price in the title role. Katherine Dunham and John Pratt married in 1949 to adopt Marie-Christine, a French 14-month-old baby. On graduating with a bachelors degree in anthropology she undertook field studies in the Caribbean and in Brazil. Additionally, she worked closely with Vera Mirova who specialized in "Oriental" dance. Katherine Dunham was an African-American dancer and choreographer, producer, author, scholar, anthropologist and Civil Rights activist. She had one of the most successful dance careers in Western dance theatre in the 20th century and directed her own dance company for many years. [15] Dunham's relationship with Redfield in particular was highly influential. Search input Search submit button. The family moved to Joliet, Illinois when her father remarried. Example. Katherine Dunham in a photograph from around 1945. [18] to the Department of Anthropology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a master's degree. When she was not performing, Dunham and Pratt often visited Haiti for extended stays. She also choreographed and starred in dance sequences in such films as Carnival of Rhythm (1942), Stormy Weather (1943), and Casbah (1947). In recognition of her stance, President Aristide later awarded her a medal of Haiti's highest honor. Choreographer. "Between Primitivism and Diaspora: The Dance Performances of Josephine Baker, Zora Neale Hurston, and Katherine Dunham". ", Examples include: The Ballet in film "Stormy Weather" (Stone 1943) and "Mambo" (Rossen 1954). In 1931, at the age of 21, Dunham formed a group called Ballets Ngres, one of the first black ballet companies in the United States. Encouraged by Speranzeva to focus on modern dance instead of ballet, Dunham opened her first dance school in 1933, calling it the Negro Dance Group. Unlike other modern dance creators who eschewed classical ballet, Dunham embraced it as a foundation for her technique. Birth date: October 17, 1956. [16], After her research tour of the Caribbean in 1935, Dunham returned to Chicago in the late spring of 1936. Glory Van Scott and Jean-Lon Destin were among other former Dunham dancers who remained her lifelong friends. They were stranded without money because of bad management by their impresario. Birth Country: United States. As Julia Foulkes pointed out, "Dunham's path to success lay in making high art in the United States from African and Caribbean sources, capitalizing on a heritage of dance within the African Diaspora, and raising perceptions of African American capabilities."[65]. Born: June 22, 1909. 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. [54], Six decades before this new wave of anthropological discourse began, Katherine Dunham's work demonstrated anthropology being used as a force for challenging racist and colonial ideologies. As celebrities, their voices can have a profound influence on popular culture. Time reported that, "she went on a 47-day hunger strike to protest the U.S.'s forced repatriation of Haitian refugees. During her tenure, she secured funding for the Performing Arts Training Center, where she introduced a program designed to channel the energy of the communitys youth away from gangs and into dance. However, she did not seriously pursue a career in the profession until she was a student . Check out this biography to know about his childhood, family life, achievements and fun facts about him. A highlight of Dunham's later career was the invitation from New York's Metropolitan Opera to stage dances for a new production of Aida, starring soprano Leontyne Price. Katherine Dunham. Dunham's background as an anthropologist gave the dances of the opera a new authenticity. One of the most important dance artists of the twentieth century, dancer and choreographer Katherine Dunham (1909-2006) created works that thrilled audiences the world over. Born in Glen Ellyn, IL #6. Dunham became interested in both writing and dance at a young age. She wrote that he "opened the floodgates of anthropology" for her. Deren is now considered to be a pioneer of independent American filmmaking. 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. It next moved to the West Coast for an extended run of performances there. Katherine Dunham, a world-renowned dancer and choreographer, had big plans for East St. Louis in 1977. She was instrumental in getting respect for Black dancers on the concert dance stage and directed the first self-supported Black dance company. Died On : May 21, 2006. 4 (December 2010): 640642. [ ] Katherine Dunham was born on June 22, 1909 (age 96) in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, United States. Katherine Dunham or the "Matriarch of Black Dance'' as many called her, was a revolutionary African American anthropologist and professional dancer. Her legacy was far-reaching, both in dance and her cultural and social work. In December 1951, a photo of Dunham dancing with Ismaili Muslim leader Prince Ali Khan at a private party he had hosted for her in Paris appeared in a popular magazine and fueled rumors that the two were romantically linked. movement and expression. Katherine Dunham Facts that are Fun!!! 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. She built her own dance empire and was hailed as the queen of black dance. Katherine Dunham always had an interest in dance and anthropology so her main goal in life was to combine them. In 1945, Dunham opened and directed the Katherine Dunham School of Dance and Theatre near Times Square in New York City. This was the beginning of more than 20 years during which Dunham performed with her company almost exclusively outside the United States. Some Facts. [58] Early on into graduate school, Dunham was forced to choose between finishing her master's degree in anthropology and pursuing her career in dance. The Dunham company's international tours ended in Vienna in 1960. The Met Ballet Company dancers studied Dunham Technique at Dunham's 42nd Street dance studio for the entire summer leading up to the season opening of Aida. 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. 6 Katherine Dunham facts. The show created a minor controversy in the press. Radcliffe-Brown, Edward Sapir, Melville Herskovits, Lloyd Warner and Bronisaw Malinowski. Luminaries like Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey and Katherine Dunham began to shape and define what this new genre of dance would be. Katherine Johnson graduated from college at age 18. At the time, the South Side of Chicago was experiencing the effects of the Great Migration were Black southerners attempted to escape the Jim Crow South and poverty. You dance because you have to. Through much study and time, she eventually became one of the founders of the field of dance anthropology. Among Dunham's closest friends and colleagues was Julie Robinson, formerly a performer with the Katherine Dunham Company, and her husband, singer and later political activist Harry Belafonte. [20] She recorded her findings through ethnographic fieldnotes and by learning dance techniques, music and song, alongside her interlocutors. After the national tour of Cabin in the Sky, the Dunham company stayed in Los Angeles, where they appeared in the Warner Brothers short film Carnival of Rhythm (1941). She choreographed for Broadway stage productions and operaincluding Aida (1963) for the New York Metropolitan Opera. As a choreographer, anthropologist, educator, and activist, Katherine Dunham transformed the field of dance in the twentieth century. In 2000 she was named one of the first one hundred of "America's Irreplaceable Dance Treasures" by the Dance Heritage Coalition. Katherine Dunham on dance anthropology. As one of her biographers, Joyce Aschenbrenner, wrote: "Today, it is safe to say, there is no American black dancer who has not been influenced by the Dunham Technique, unless he or she works entirely within a classical genre",[2] and the Dunham Technique is still taught to anyone who studies modern dance. At the age of 82, Dunham went on a hunger strike in . Katherine Dunham facts for kids. Dunham, Katherine Mary (1909-2006) By Das, Joanna Dee. In 1950, while visiting Brazil, Dunham and her group were refused rooms at a first-class hotel in So Paulo, the Hotel Esplanada, frequented by many American businessmen. Grow your vocab the fun way! Text:. 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. At the recommendation of her mentor Melville Herskovits, PhB'20a Northwestern University anthropologist and African studies expertDunham's calling cards read both "dancer" and . 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. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. Katherine Dunham (1909-2006) was a world-renowned choreographer who broke many barriers of race and gender, most notably as an African American woman whose dance company toured the United States, Latin America, Europe, Asia, and Australia for several decades. "[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. [14] Redfield, Herskovits, and Sapir's contributions to cultural anthropology, exposed Dunham to topics and ideas that inspired her creatively and professionally. She died a month before her 97th birthday.[53]. Her world-renowned modern dance company exposed audiences to the diversity of dance, and her schools brought dance training and education to a variety of populations sharing her passion and commitment to dance as a medium of cultural communication. There, he ran a dry cleaning business in a place mostly occupied by white people. The result of this trip was Dunham's Master's thesis entitled "The Dances of Haiti". Alumnae include Eartha Kitt, Marlon Brando and Julie Belafonte. This won international acclaim and is now taught as a modern dance style in many dance schools. Katherine Johnson, ne Katherine Coleman, also known as (1939-56) Katherine Goble, (born August 26, 1918, White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, U.S.died February 24, 2020, Newport News, Virginia), American mathematician who calculated and analyzed the flight paths of many spacecraft during her more than three decades with the U.S. space program. Dunham ended her fast only after exiled Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide and Jesse Jackson came to her and personally requested that she stop risking her life for this cause. The Katherine Dunham Museum is located at 1005 Pennsylvania Avenue, East St. Louis, Illinois. For several years, Dunham's personal assistant and press promoter was Maya Deren, who later also became interested in Vodun and wrote The Divine Horseman: The Voodoo Gods of Haiti (1953). Early in 1936, she arrived in Haiti, where she remained for several months, the first of her many extended stays in that country through her life. for teaching dance that is still la'ag'ya , Shange , Veraruzana, nanigo. From the solar system to the world economy to educational games, Fact Monster has the info kids are seeking. The Katherine Dunham Fund buys and adapts for use as a museum an English Regency-style townhouse on Pennsylvania Avenue at Tenth Street in East Saint Louis. In 1921, a short story she wrote when she was 12 years old, called "Come Back to Arizona", was published in volume 2 of The Brownies' Book.
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