[4], Katherine Mary Dunham was born on June 22, 1909, in a Chicago hospital and taken as an infant to her parents' home in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, about 25 miles west of Chicago. 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. "Her mastery of body movement was considered 'phenomenal.' In 1931, at the age of 21, Dunham formed a group called Ballets Nègres, one of the first black ballet companies in the United States. Katherine Dunham, was mounted at the Women's Center on the campus. American actress, singer, dancer, choreographer, theatre director, and author. 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. During these years, the Dunham company appeared in some 33 countries in Europe, North Africa, South America, Australia, and East Asia. 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. In 1978, an anthology of writings by and about her, also entitled Kaiso! In 2000 she was named one of the first one hundred of "America's Irreplaceable Dance Treasures" by the Dance Heritage Coalition. Article. She decided to live for a year in relative isolation in Kyoto, Japan, where she worked on writing memoirs of her youth. 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). This initiative drew international publicity to the plight of the Haitian boat-people and U.S. discrimination against them. She has been called the "matriarch and queen mother of black dance.". Others who attended her school included James Dean, Gregory Peck, Jose Ferrer, Jennifer Jones, Shelley Winters, Sidney Poitier, Shirley MacLaine and Warren Beatty. Katherine Dunham [1]1910–2006 Dancer, anthropologist, social worker, activist, author Katherine Dunham [2]'s long and remarkable life spanned the fields of anthropology, dance, theater, and inner city social work [3]. Please use the form below if you have a comment on the facts. Her father, Albert Millard Dunham, was a descendant of slaves from West Africa and Madagascar. Deren is now considered to be a pioneer of independent American filmmaking. The Katherine Dunham Dancers appeared in Concert Varieites on Broadway Dunham choreographed, directed, and stared in the musical play Carib Song, Adelphi Theater, New York John Pratt, Dunham’s companion, future husband, and costume and set designer, is drafted to the U.S. Army and Dunham assumes responsibility for costume and set design 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. In 1949, Dunham returned from international touring with her company for a brief stay in the United States, where she suffered a temporary nervous breakdown after the premature death of her beloved brother Albert. Fellow anthropology student Zora Neale Hurston also did field work in the Caribbean. Later in the year she opened a cabaret show in Las Vegas, during the first year that the city became a popular entertainment as well as gambling destination. 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.[12]. 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. In August she was awarded a bachelor's degree, a Ph.B., bachelor of philosophy, with her principal area of study named as social anthropology. 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. This was followed by television spectaculars filmed in London, Buenos Aires, Toronto, Sydney, and Mexico City. 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. At this time Dunham first became associated with designer John Pratt, whom she later married. By 1957, Dunham was under severe personal strain, which was affecting her health. 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. 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 had been invited to stage a new number for the popular, long-running musical revue Pins and Needles 1940, produced by the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union. 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 Música en la Noche (1955), made in Mexico City. 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. Dunham had one of the most successful dance careers in African-American and European theater of the 20th century, and directed her own dance company for many years. Dunham's background as an anthropologist gave the dances of the opera a new authenticity. People Projects Discussions Surnames ", Black writer, Arthur Todd, described her as "one of our national treasures." 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. A photographic exhibit honoring her achievements, entitled Kaiso! Katharine Tilden (born Dunham) was born on month day 1884, at birth place, New Jersey, to Robert R Dunham and Emma Dunham (born Voorhees). Katherine got married to John Thomas Prattin 1941 and John was a white Canadian with whom she had collaborated artistically since 1938. As this show continued its run at the Windsor Theater, Dunham booked her own company in the theater for a Sunday performance. The next year the production was repeated with Katherine Dunham in the lead and with students from Dunham's Negro Dance Group in the ensemble. Dunham Company member Dana McBroom-Manno was selected as a featured artist in the show, which played on the Music Fair Circuit. "In introducing authentic African dance-movements to her company and audiences, Dunham—perhaps more than any other choreographer of the time—exploded the possibilities of modern dance expression.". As a result, Dunham would later experience some diplomatic "difficulties" on her tours. This won international acclaim and is now taught as a modern dance style in many dance schools. She realized that her professional calling was performance. Article. 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. Katherine Dunham (1909-2006) was a dancer, choreographer, educator, and cultural ambassador. After this well-received performance in 1931, the group was disbanded. Her father, a tailor and dry cleaner, was black, while her mother was French Canadian. In response, the Afonso Arinos law was passed in 1951 that made racial discrimination in public places a felony in Brazil.[19][20][21][22][23][24]. In September 1943, under the management of the impresario Sol Hurok, her troupe opened in Tropical Review at the Martin Beck Theater. During this time, she developed a warm friendship with the psychologist and philosopher Erich Fromm, whom she had known in Europe. In 1946, Dunham returned to Broadway for a revue entitled Bal Nègre, which received glowing notices from theater and dance critics. She later returned to graduate and submitted a master's thesis in anthropology. Pratt, who was white, shared Dunham's interests in African-Caribbean cultures and was happy to put his talents in her service. Besides Redfield, she studied under anthropologists such as A.R. "[25] 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. In addition to her theatrical career, Dunham did pioneering work in the field of dance anthropology and founded a school … She also continued refining and teaching the Dunham Technique to transmit that knowledge to succeeding generations of dance students. Glory Van Scott and Jean-Léon Destiné were among other former Dunham dancers who remained her lifelong friends. Her style of dance is described as, "a style of dance that involved a loose torso and spine, articulated pelvis and isolation of the limbs." 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. The next year, after the US entered World War II, Dunham appeared in the Paramount musical film Star Spangled Rhythm (1942) in a specialty number, "Sharp as a Tack," with Eddie "Rochester" Anderson. Members of Dunham's last New York Company auditioned to become members of the Met Ballet Company. 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. 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. In a lecture by Robert Redfield, a professor of anthropology, she learned that much of black culture in modern America had begun in Africa. 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. After the tour, in 1945, the Dunham company appeared in the short-lived Blue Holiday at the Belasco Theater in New York, and in the more successful Carib Song at the Adelphi Theatre.