katherine dunham fun facts
As a graduate student in anthropology in the mid-1930s, she conducted dance research in the Caribbean. Birthday : June 22, 1909. This meant neither of the children were able to settle into a home for a few years. Katherine Dunham facts for kids. It was considered one of the best learning centers of its type at the time. In 1938 she joined the Federal Theatre Project in Chicago and composed a ballet, LAgYa, based on Caribbean dance. ", Examples include: The Ballet in film "Stormy Weather" (Stone 1943) and "Mambo" (Rossen 1954). Named Marie-Christine Dunham Pratt, she was their only child. [50] Both Dunham and the prince denied the suggestion. Check out this biography to know about his childhood, family life, achievements and fun facts about him. Katherine Dunham, was mounted at the Women's Center on the campus. Grow your vocab the fun way! 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. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Even in retirement Dunham continued to choreograph: one of her major works was directing the premiere full, posthumous production Scott Joplin's opera Treemonisha in 1972, a joint production of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the Morehouse College chorus in Atlanta, conducted by Robert Shaw. 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. During these years, the Dunham company appeared in some 33 countries in Europe, North Africa, South America, Australia, and East Asia. 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. Katherine Dunham is the inventor of the Dunham technique and a renowned dancer and choreographer of African-American descent. Jobson, Ryan Cecil. Katherine Dunham, was published in a limited, numbered edition of 130 copies by the Institute for the Study of Social Change. Katherine Dunham on dance anthropology. After Mexico, Dunham began touring in Europe, where she was an immediate sensation. Despite these successes, the company frequently ran into periods of financial difficulties, as Dunham was required to support all of the 30 to 40 dancers and musicians. Katherine Dunham (born June 22, 1909) [1] [2] was an American dancer, choreographer, and anthropologist. Dunham early became interested in dance. 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. When you have faith in something, it's your reason to be alive and to fight for it. Some Facts. Kraut, Anthea. Birth Year: 1956. Dunham early became interested in dance. ", "Dunham's European success led to considerable imitation of her work in European revues it is safe to say that the perspectives of concert-theatrical dance in Europe were profoundly affected by the performances of the Dunham troupe. 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. Dunham was active in human rights causes, and in 1992 she staged a 47-day hunger strike to highlight the plight of Haitian refugees. Katherine Dunham in a photograph from around 1945. Her mother, Fanny June Dunham, who, according to Dunham's memoir, possessed Indian, French Canadian, English and probably African ancestry, died when Dunham was four years old. The group performed Dunham's Negro Rhapsody at the Chicago Beaux Arts Ball. Ruth Page had written a scenario and choreographed La Guiablesse ("The Devil Woman"), based on a Martinican folk tale in Lafcadio Hearn's Two Years in the French West Indies. Katherine Dunham: The Artist as Activist During World War II. One recurring theme that I really . 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. 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. Example. Using some ballet vernacular, Dunham incorporates these principles into a set of class exercises she labeled as "processions". [7] The family moved to a predominantly white neighborhood in Joliet, Illinois. Video footage of Dunham technique classes show a strong emphasis on anatomical alignment, breath, and fluidity. [60], However, this decision did not keep her from engaging with and highly influencing the discipline for the rest of her life and beyond. It was not a success, closing after only eight performances. She did not complete the other requirements for that degree, however, as she realized that her professional calling was performance and choreography. During this time, she developed a warm friendship with the psychologist and philosopher Erich Fromm, whom she had known in Europe. Facts about Alvin Ailey talk about the famous African-American activist and choreographer. This was followed by television spectaculars filmed in London, Buenos Aires, Toronto, Sydney, and Mexico City. He needn't have bothered. [20] She recorded her findings through ethnographic fieldnotes and by learning dance techniques, music and song, alongside her interlocutors. 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 . In the 1970s, scholars of Anthropology such as Dell Hymes and William S. Willis began to discuss Anthropology's participation in scientific colonialism. 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. She taught dance lessons to help pay for her education at the University of Chicago. In 1987 she received the Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award, and was also inducted into the. In 2000 she was named one of the first one hundred of "America's Irreplaceable Dance Treasures" by the Dance Heritage Coalition. [13] The Anthropology department at Chicago in the 1930s and 40s has been described as holistic, interdisciplinary, with a philosophy of liberal humanism, and principles of racial equality and cultural relativity. But what set her work even further apart from Martha Graham and Jos Limn was her fusion of that foundation with Afro-Caribbean styles. It next moved to the West Coast for an extended run of performances there. 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.". She made national headlines by staging a hunger strike to protest the U.S. governments repatriation policy for Haitian immigrants. This gained international headlines and the embarrassed local police officials quickly released her. 3 (1992): 24. : Writings by and About Katherine Dunham. [28] Strongly founded in her anthropological research in the Caribbean, Dunham technique introduces rhythm as the backbone of various widely known modern dance principles including contraction and release,[29] groundedness, fall and recover,[30] counterbalance, and many more. From the 40s to the 60s, Dunham and her dance troupe toured to 57 countries of the world. Fun Facts. 288 pages, Hardcover. Anna Kisselgoff, a dance critic for The New York Times, called Dunham "a major pioneer in Black theatrical dance ahead of her time." In 1945, Dunham opened and directed the Katherine Dunham School of Dance and Theatre near Times Square in New York City. The Washington Post called her "dancer Katherine the Great." [5] She had an older brother, Albert Jr., with whom she had a close relationship. Dunham was born in Chicago on June 22, 1909. Photo provided by Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Morris Library Special Collections Research Center. As I document in my book Katherine Dunham: Dance and the . [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. However, it has now became a common practice within the discipline. 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. April 30, 2019. Alumnae include Eartha Kitt, Marlon Brando and Julie Belafonte. She also continued refining and teaching the Dunham Technique to transmit that knowledge to succeeding generations of dance students. As a result, Dunham would later experience some diplomatic "difficulties" on her tours. This was the beginning of more than 20 years during which Dunham performed with her company almost exclusively outside the United States. [11], During her time in Chicago, Dunham enjoyed holding social gatherings and inviting visitors to her apartment. 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. Her fieldwork inspired her innovative interpretations of dance in the Caribbean, South America, and Africa. She is known for her many innovations, one of her most known . However, fully aware of her passion for both dance performance, as well as anthropological research, she felt she had to choose between the two. The troupe performed a suite of West Indian dances in the first half of the program and a ballet entitled Tropic Death, with Talley Beatty, in the second half. Dunham also studied ballet with Mark Turbyfill and Ruth Page, who became prima ballerina of the Chicago Opera. Katherine Dunham is credited Her dance troupe in venues around. Dunham technique is also inviting to the influence of cultural movement languages outside of dance including karate and capoeira.[36]. Back in the United States she formed an all-black dance troupe, which in 1940 performed her Tropics and Le Jazz . Omissions? Her many original works include Lagya, Shango and Bal Negre. Through much study and time, she eventually became one of the founders of the field of dance anthropology. 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). He was only one of a number of international celebrities who were Dunham's friends. The program included courses in dance, drama, performing arts, applied skills, humanities, cultural studies, and Caribbean research. Alvin Ailey later produced a tribute for her in 198788 at Carnegie Hall with his American Dance Theater, entitled The Magic of Katherine Dunham. 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. Additionally, she worked closely with Vera Mirova who specialized in "Oriental" dance. Her technique was "a way of life". 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. While in Haiti, Dunham investigated Vodun rituals and made extensive research notes, particularly on the dance movements of the participants. She was instrumental in getting respect for Black dancers on the concert dance stage and directed the first self-supported Black dance company. 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. Her popular books are Island Possessed (1969), Touch of Innocence (1959), Dances of Haiti (1983), Kaiso! In 1967 she officially retired, after presenting a final show at the famous Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York. In my mind, it's the most fascinating thing in the world to learn".[19]. Actress: Star Spangled Rhythm. 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. Dunham refused to hold a show in one theater after finding out that the city's black residents had not been allowed to buy tickets for the performance. Charm Dance from "L'Ag'Ya". Pratt, who was white, shared Dunham's interests in African-Caribbean cultures and was happy to put his talents in her service. In 1963, she became the first African American to choreograph for the Met since Hemsley Winfield set the dances for The Emperor Jones in 1933. While in Haiti, she hasn't only studied Vodun rituals, but also participated and became a mambo, female high priest in the Vodun religion. Dunham had one of the most successful dance careers in African-American and European theater of the 20th . The schools she created helped train such notables as Alvin Ailey and Jerome Robbins in the "Dunham technique." Death . Jeff Dunham hails from Dallas, Texas. Beda Schmid. Best Known For: Mae C. Jemison is the . 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. 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. It opened in Chicago in 1933, with a black cast and with Page dancing the title role. The highly respected Dance magazine did a feature cover story on Dunham in August 2000 entitled "One-Woman Revolution". Here are 10 facts about her fascinating life. Dunham, Katherine dnm . She established the Katherine Dunham Centers for Arts and Humanities in East St. Louis to preserve Haitian and African instruments and artifacts from her personal collection. In 1946, Dunham returned to Broadway for a revue entitled Bal Ngre, which received glowing notices from theater and dance critics. 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. She was one of the first researchers in anthropology to use her research of Afro-Haitian dance and culture for remedying racist misrepresentation of African culture in the miseducation of Black Americans. Among her dancers selected were Marcia McBroom, Dana McBroom, Jean Kelly, and Jesse Oliver. Retrieved from the Library of Congress,
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katherine dunham fun facts