The finale to the first act of this show was Shango, a staged interpretation of a Vodun ritual, which became a permanent part of the company's repertory. [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. What are some fun facts about Katherine Dunham? Intrigued by this theory, Dunham began to study African roots of dance and, in 1935, she traveled to the Caribbean for field research. "Kaiso! Dunham Company member Dana McBroom-Manno was selected as a featured artist in the show, which played on the Music Fair Circuit. She and her company frequently had difficulties finding adequate accommodations while on tour because in many regions of the country, black Americans were not allowed to stay at hotels. She was the first American dancer to present indigenous forms on a concert stage, the first to sustain a black dance company. She created and performed in works for stage, clubs, and Hollywood films; she started a school and a technique that continue to flourish; she fought unstintingly for racial justice. Her father was a descendant of slaves from West Africa, and her mother was a mix of French-Canadian and Native-American heritage. Katherine Dunham. Katherine Dunham or the "Matriarch of - Medium katherine dunham fun facts 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. ZURICH Othella Dallas lay on the hardwood . He lived on 5 January 1931 and passed away on 1 December 1989. Classes are led by Ruby Streate, director of dance and education and artistic director of the Katherine Dunham Children's Workshop. Katherine Dunham - Facts, Bio, Favorites, Info, Family - Sticky Facts Katherine Dunham, June 22, Katherine Dunham was born to a French -Canadian woman and an African American man in the state of Chicago in America, Her birthday was 22nd June in the year 1909. . 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. Barrelhouse. After Mexico, Dunham began touring in Europe, where she was an immediate sensation. A actor. Born in 1512 to Sir Thomas Parr, lord of the manor of Kendal in Westmorland, and Maud Green, an heiress and courtier, Catherine belonged to a family of substantial influence in the north. [ ] Katherine Dunham was born on June 22, 1909 (age 96) in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, United States. She was also consulted on costuming for the Egyptian and Ethiopian dress. 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190264871.003.0001, "Dunham Technique: Fall and recovery with body roll", "Katherine Dunham on need for Dunham Technique", "The Negro Problem in a Class Society: 19511960 Brazil", "Katherine Dunham, Dance Icon, Dies at 96", "Candace Award Recipients 19821990, Page 1", "Katherine the Great: 2004 Lifetime Achievement Awardee Katherine Dunham", Katherine Dunham's Dance as Public Anthropology, Katherine Dunham on her anthropological films, Guide to the Photograph Collection on Katherine Dunham, Katherine Dunham's oral history video excerpts, "Katherine Dunham on Overcoming 1940s Racism", Katherine Dunham Centers for Arts and Humanities, Recalling Choreographer and Activist Dunham, "How Katherine Dunham Revealed Black Dance to the World", Katherine Dunham, Dance Pioneer, Dies at 96, "On Stage and Backstage withTalented Katherine Dunham, Master Dance Designer", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Katherine_Dunham&oldid=1139015494, American people of French-Canadian descent, 20th-century African-American politicians, Short description is different from Wikidata, Pages using infobox person with multiple spouses, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, In 1971 she received the Heritage Award from the, In 1983 she was a recipient of one of the highest artistic awards in the United States, the. A photographic exhibit honoring her achievements, entitled Kaiso! Katherine Dunham Biography, Life, Interesting Facts. In 19341936, Dunham performed as a guest artist with the ballet company of the Chicago Opera. "Between Primitivism and Diaspora: The Dance Performances of Josephine Baker, Zora Neale Hurston, and Katherine Dunham". Other movies she performed in as a dancer during this period included the Abbott and Costello comedy Pardon My Sarong (1942) and the black musical Stormy Weather (1943), which featured a stellar range of actors, musicians and dancers.[24]. Called the Matriarch of Black Dance, her groundbreaking repertoire combined innovative interpretations of Caribbean dances, traditional ballet, African rituals and African American rhythms to create the Dunham Technique, which she performed with her dance troupe in venues around the world. In 1992, at age 83, Dunham went on a highly publicized hunger strike to protest the discriminatory U.S. foreign policy against Haitian boat-people. In the mid-1930s she conducted anthropological research on dance and incorporated her findings into her choreography, blending the rhythms and movements of . After noticing that Katherine enjoyed working and socializing with people, her brother suggested that she study Anthropology. Katherine Dunham, it includes photographs highlighting the many dimensions of Dunham's life and work. During this time, she developed a warm friendship with the psychologist and philosopher Erich Fromm, whom she had known in Europe. By 1957, Dunham was under severe personal strain, which was affecting her health. There she was able to bring anthropologists, sociologists, educational specialists, scientists, writers, musicians, and theater people together to create a liberal arts curriculum that would be a foundation for further college work. Why was Katherine Dunham called the mother of African American dance - Pic Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images. Katherine Dunham's Mark on Jazz Dance | Jazz Dance: A History of the The following year, she moved to East St. Louis, where she opened the Performing Arts Training Center to help the underserved community. She built her own dance empire and was hailed as the queen of black dance. 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. Name: Mae C. Jemison. [54] After recovering crucial dance epistemologies relevant to people of the African diaspora during her ethnographic research, she applied anthropological knowledge toward developing her own dance pedagogy (Dunham Technique) that worked to reconcile with the legacy of colonization and racism and correct sociocultural injustices. There, her father ran a dry-cleaning business.[8]. Banks, Ojeya Cruz. She did not complete the other requirements for that degree, however, as she realized that her professional calling was performance and choreography. Also Known For : . 10 Facts About Katherine Johnson - Mental Floss 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. . This meant neither of the children were able to settle into a home for a few years. As celebrities, their voices can have a profound influence on popular culture. Dunham and her company appeared in the Hollywood movie Casbah (1948) with Tony Martin, Yvonne De Carlo, and Peter Lorre, and in the Italian film Botta e Risposta, produced by Dino de Laurentiis. Pratt, who was white, shared Dunham's interests in African-Caribbean cultures and was happy to put his talents in her service. 113 views, 2 likes, 4 loves, 0 comments, 6 shares, Facebook Watch Videos from Institute for Dunham Technique Certification: Fun facts about Julie Belafonte brought to you by IDTC! In the mid-1950s, Dunham and her company appeared in three films: Mambo (1954), made in Italy; Die Grosse Starparade (1954), made in Germany; and Msica en la Noche (1955), made in Mexico City. International dance icon Katherine Dunham (right,) also an anthropologist, founded an art museum in East St. Louis, IL. 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. Her work inspired many. Dunham's background as an anthropologist gave the dances of the opera a new authenticity. [1] The Dunham Technique is still taught today. She is a celebrity dancer. In 1938 she joined the Federal Theatre Project in Chicago and composed a ballet, LAgYa, based on Caribbean dance. Claude Conyers, "Film Choreography by Katherine Dunham, 19391964," in Clark and Johnson. Last Name Dunham #5. Chin, Elizabeth. Her father was given a number of important positions at court . The Katherine Dunham Company toured throughout North America in the mid-1940s, performing as well in the racially segregated South. Katherine Dunham: The Artist as Activist | Center for the Humanities 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. Fighting, Alive, Have Faith. As a result, Dunham would later experience some diplomatic "difficulties" on her tours. The family moved to Joliet, Illinois when her father remarried. katherine dunham fun factsaiken county sc register of deeds katherine dunham fun facts [52], On May 21, 2006, Dunham died in her sleep from natural causes in New York City. There is also a strong emphasis on training dancers in the practices of engaging with polyrhythms by simultaneously moving their upper and lower bodies according to different rhythmic patterns. In 1946, Dunham returned to Broadway for a revue entitled Bal Ngre, which received glowing notices from theater and dance critics. 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. Dunham was active in human rights causes, and in 1992 she staged a 47-day hunger strike to highlight the plight of Haitian refugees. Dunham had one of the most successful dance careers of the 20th century, and directed her own dance company for many years. On one of these visits, during the late 1940s, she purchased a large property of more than seven hectares (approximately 17.3 acres) in the Carrefours suburban area of Port-au-Prince, known as Habitation Leclerc. Katherine Dunham. Smith, Linda Tuhiwai. In 1966, she served as a State Department representative for the United States to the first ever World Festival of Negro Arts in Dakar, Senegal. Katherine Dunham by:Miracle | Other Quiz - Quizizz 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. It closed after only 38 performances. The Katherine Dunham Company became an incubator for many well known performers, including Archie Savage, Talley Beatty, Janet Collins, Lenwood Morris, Vanoye Aikens, Lucille Ellis, Pearl Reynolds, Camille Yarbrough, Lavinia Williams, and Tommy Gomez. This gained international headlines and the embarrassed local police officials quickly released her. (She later wrote Journey to Accompong, a book describing her experiences there.) Additionally, she worked closely with Vera Mirova who specialized in "Oriental" dance. 3 (1992): 24. 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]. The program included courses in dance, drama, performing arts, applied skills, humanities, cultural studies, and Caribbean research. 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. [15] He showed her the connection between dance and social life giving her the momentum to explore a new area of anthropology, which she later termed "Dance Anthropology". 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. Receiving a post graduate academic fellowship, she went to the Caribbean to study the African diaspora, ethnography and local dance. According to the Katherine Dunham Centers for Arts and Humanities, Dunham never thought she'd have a career in dance, although she did study with ballerina and choreographer Ruth Page, among others. Her popular books are Island Possessed (1969), Touch of Innocence (1959), Dances of Haiti (1983), Kaiso! The show created a minor controversy in the press. Some Facts. The original two-week engagement was extended by popular demand into a three-month run, after which the company embarked on an extensive tour of the United States and Canada. Birthday : June 22, 1909. Katherine Dunham: Dance and the African Diaspora - Goodreads 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. Her field work in the Caribbean began in Jamaica, where she lived for several months in the remote Maroon village of Accompong, deep in the mountains of Cockpit Country. See "Selected Bibliography of Writings by Katherine Dunham" in Clark and Johnson. Omissions? Many of her students, trained in her studios in Chicago and New York City, became prominent in the field of modern dance. until hia death in the 1986. Transforming Anthropology 20, no. 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. From the solar system to the world economy to educational games, Fact Monster has the info kids are seeking. Katherine Dunham predated, pioneered, and demonstrated new ways of doing and envisioning Anthropology six decades ahead of the discipline. Initially scheduled for a single performance, the show was so popular that the troupe repeated it for another ten Sundays. Katherine Mary Dunham (June 22, 1909 - May 21, 2006) was an American dancer, choreographer, anthropologist, and social activist. [9] In high school she joined the Terpsichorean Club and began to learn a kind of modern dance based on the ideas of Europeans [mile Jaques-Dalcroze] and [Rudolf von Laban]. Katherine Dunham. American Anthropologist 122, no. ", Kraut, Anthea, "Between Primitivism and Diaspora: The Dance Performances of, This page was last edited on 12 February 2023, at 22:48. Later Dunham established a second home in Senegal, and she occasionally returned there to scout for talented African musicians and dancers. Dunham Technique was created by Katherine Dunham, a legend in the worlds of dance and anthropology. Katherine Dunham's long and remarkable life spanned the fields of anthropology, dance, theater, and inner city social work.As an anthropologist, Dunham studied and lived among the peoples of Haiti and other Caribbean islands; as a dancer and choreographer she combined "primitive" Caribbean dances with . Despite 13 knee surgeries, Ms. Dunham danced professionally for more than . After running it as a tourist spot, with Vodun dancing as entertainment, in the early 1960s, she sold it to a French entrepreneur in the early 1970s. Katherine Dunham Timeline | Articles and Essays | Selections from the 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. Her father was of black ancestry, a descendant of slaves from West Africa and Madagascar, while her mother belonged to mixed French-Canadian and Native . In 2000 Katherine Dunham was named America's irreplaceable Dance Treasure. Dunham technique is a codified dance training technique developed by Katherine Dunham in the mid 20th century. Photo provided by Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Morris Library Special Collections Research Center. ", 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.". Video. Katherine Dunham. Katherine Dunham (born June 22, 1909) [1] was an American dancer, choreographer, and anthropologist [1]. She arranged a fundraising cabaret for a Methodist Church, where she did her first public performance when she was 15 years old. Another fact is that it was the sometime home of the pioneering black American dancer Katherine Dunham. 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. [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. Members of Dunham's last New York Company auditioned to become members of the Met Ballet Company. She taught dance lessons to help pay for her education at the University of Chicago. He started doing stand-up comedy in the late 1980s. In response, the Afonso Arinos law was passed in 1951 that made racial discrimination in public places a felony in Brazil.[42][43][44][45][46][47]. 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. informed by new methods of america's most highly regarded. She wrote that he "opened the floodgates of anthropology" for her. 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: Decolonizing Anthropology Through African American Dance Pedagogy." Mae C. Jemison: First African American Female Astronaut - Biography Interesting facts. 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. A short biography on the legendary Katherine Dunham.All information found at: kdcah.org Enjoy the short history lesson and visit dancingindarkskin.com for mo. 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. 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. 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. Dunham married Jordis McCoo, a black postal worker, in 1931, but he did not share her interests and they gradually drifted apart, finally divorcing in 1938. If Cities Could Dance: East St. Louis. [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. Dunham created Rara Tonga and Woman with a Cigar at this time, which became well known. For almost 30 years she maintained the Katherine Dunham Dance Company, the only self-supported American black dance troupe at that time. She was the recipient of a Kennedy Center Honors Award, the Plaque d'Honneur Haitian-American Chamber of Commerce Award, and a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame. Dunham continued to develop dozens of new productions during this period, and the company met with enthusiastic audiences in every city. The prince was then married to actress Rita Hayworth, and Dunham was now legally married to John Pratt; a quiet ceremony in Las Vegas had taken place earlier in the year.