At this time Dunham first became associated with designer John Pratt, whom she later married. Radcliffe-Brown, Edward Sapir, Melville Herskovits, Lloyd Warner and Bronisaw Malinowski. Episode 5 of Break the FACTS! 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. It was a huge collection of writings by and about Katherine Dunham, so it naturally covered a lot of area. Dunham was both a popular entertainer and a serious artist intent on tracing the roots of Black culture. [5] Along with the Great Migration, came White flight and her aunt Lulu's business suffered and ultimately closed as a result. Her technique was "a way of life". Some Facts. 2023 The HistoryMakers. Birthday : June 22, 1909. Katherine Mary Dunham was born in Chicago in 1909. 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. Her choreography and performances made use of a concept within Dance Anthropology called "research-to-performance". She was born on June 22, 1909 in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, a small . The Dunham Technique Ballet African Dancing Her favorite color was platinum Caribbean Dancing Her favorite food was Filet of Sole How she started out Ballet African Dance Caribbean Dance The Dunham Technique wasn't so much as a technique so Katherine was also an activist, author, educator, and anthropologist. 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. Also Known For : . At the recommendation of her mentor Melville Herskovits, PhB'20a Northwestern University anthropologist and African studies expertDunham's calling cards read both "dancer" and . Intrigued by this theory, Dunham began to study African roots of dance and, in 1935, she traveled to the Caribbean for field research. [22] Katherine Dunham introduced African and Caribbean rhythms to modern dance. She was a pioneer of Dance Anthropology, established methodologies of ethnochoreology, and her work gives essential historical context to current conversations and practices of decolonization within and outside of the discipline of anthropology. Featuring lively Latin American and Caribbean dances, plantation dances, and American social dances, the show was an immediate success. 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. In the 1970s, scholars of Anthropology such as Dell Hymes and William S. Willis began to discuss Anthropology's participation in scientific colonialism. "The Case for Letting Anthropology Burn: Sociocultural Anthropology in 2019." Katherine Dunham facts for kids. Through much study and time, she eventually became one of the founders of the field of dance anthropology. Dunham was always a formidable advocate for racial equality, boycotting segregated venues in the United States and using her performances to highlight discrimination. As a teenager, she won a scholarship to the Dunham school and later became a dancer with the company, before beginning her successful singing career. Leverne Backstrom, president of the board of the Katherine Dunham Centers for Arts and Humanities, still does. Dunham, Katherine Mary (1909-2006) By Das, Joanna Dee. [6] After her mother died, her father left the children with their aunt Lulu on Chicago's South Side. 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. This meant neither of the children were able to settle into a home for a few years. Kantherine Dunham passed away of natural causes on May 21, 2006, one month before her 97th birthday. Here are 10 facts about her fascinating life. 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. Dunham's last appearance on Broadway was in 1962 in Bamboche!, which included a few former Dunham dancers in the cast and a contingent of dancers and drummers from the Royal Troupe of Morocco. Katherine Dunham was an African-American dancer and choreographer, producer, author, scholar, anthropologist and Civil Rights activist. Such visitors included ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax, novelist and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston, Robert Redfield, Bronisaw Malinowski, A.R. Transforming Anthropology 20, no. In 1947 it was expanded and granted a charter as the Katherine Dunham School of Cultural Arts. The Black Tradition in American Modern Dance. Text:. She lectured every summer until her death at annual Masters' Seminars in St. Louis, which attracted dance students from around the world. "In introducing authentic African dance-movements to her company and audiences, Dunhamperhaps more than any other choreographer of the timeexploded the possibilities of modern dance expression.". 30 seconds. ", Richard Buckle, ballet historian and critic, wrote: "Her company of magnificent dancers and musicians met with the success it has and that herself as explorer, thinker, inventor, organizer, and dancer should have reached a place in the estimation of the world, has done more than a million pamphlets could for the service of her people. She died a month before her 97th birthday.[53]. Katherine Dunham (1909-2006) brought African dance aesthetics to the United States, forever influencing modern and jazz dance. Fun Facts. Here are some interesting facts about Alvin Ailey for you: Facts about Alvin Ailey 1: the popular modern dance This gained international headlines and the embarrassed local police officials quickly released her. Katherine Dunham, was published in a limited, numbered edition of 130 copies by the Institute for the Study of Social Change. She . [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. While trying to help the young people in the community, Dunham was arrested. 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. The Dunham company's international tours ended in Vienna in 1960. Lyndon B. Johnson was in the audience for opening night. The highly respected Dance magazine did a feature cover story on Dunham in August 2000 entitled "One-Woman Revolution". 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.". Katherine Mary Dunham (also known as Kaye Dunn, June 22, 1909 - May 21, 2006) was an American dancer, choreographer, author, educator, and social activist. It was considered one of the best learning centers of its type at the time. 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. 1. 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. 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 . ", Black writer Arthur Todd described her as "one of our national treasures". New York: Rizzoli, 1989. Dunham had one of the most successful dance careers of the 20th century, and directed her own dance company for many years. Dunham and Kitt collaborated again in the 1970s in an Equity Production of the musical Peg, based on the Irish play, Peg O' My Heart. 4 (December 2010): 640642. Video. Claude Conyers, "Film Choreography by Katherine Dunham, 19391964," in Clark and Johnson. 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. All You Need to Know About Dunham Technique. 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. 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. A dance choreographer. Interesting facts. It was a venue for Dunham to teach young black dancers about their African heritage. Many of Dunham students who attended free public classes in East St. Louis Illinois speak highly about the influence of her open technique classes and artistic presence in the city. She was hailed for her smooth and fluent choreography and dominated a stage with what has been described as 'an unmitigating radiant force providing beauty with a feminine touch full of variety and nuance. It next moved to the West Coast for an extended run of performances there. "Katherine Dunham: Decolonizing Anthropology through African American Dance Pedagogy." Dunham early became interested in dance. Artists are necessary to social justice movements; they are the ones who possess a gift to see beyond the bleak present and imagine a better future. [50] Both Dunham and the prince denied the suggestion. [16], After her research tour of the Caribbean in 1935, Dunham returned to Chicago in the late spring of 1936. Her mother passed away when Katherine was only 3 years old. : Writings by and About Katherine Dunham. 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. 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. At an early age, Dunham became interested in dance. She wanted to know not only how people danced but why they dance. In 1964, Dunham settled in East St. Louis, and took up the post of artist-in-residence at Southern Illinois University in nearby Edwardsville. 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. The family moved to Joliet, Illinois when her father remarried. 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. Retrieved from the Library of Congress,
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