Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. 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. 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. Leverne Backstrom, president of the board of the Katherine Dunham Centers for Arts and Humanities, still does. Her mother passed away when Katherine was only 3 years old. 3 (1992): 24. Dunham accepted a position at Southern Illinois University in East St. Louis in the 1960s. Dance is an essential part of life that has always been with me. "Katherine Dunham's Dance as Public Anthropology. Interesting facts. Then she traveled to Martinique and to Trinidad and Tobago for short stays, primarily to do an investigation of Shango, the African god who was still considered an important presence in West Indian religious culture. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). This was followed by television spectaculars filmed in London, Buenos Aires, Toronto, Sydney, and Mexico City. 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. Cruz Banks, Ojeya. London: Zed Books, 1999. 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. Kraft from the story by Jerry Horwin and Seymour B. Robinson, directed by Andrew L. Stone, produced by William LeBaron and starring Lena Horne, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, and Cab Calloway.The film is one of two Hollywood musicals with an African . Video. Katherine Dunham died on May 21 2006. In 1938 she joined the Federal Theatre Project in Chicago and composed a ballet, LAgYa, based on Caribbean dance. ", Scholar of the arts Harold Cruse wrote in 1964: "Her early and lifelong search for meaning and artistic values for black people, as well as for all peoples, has motivated, created opportunities for, and launched careers for generations of young black artists Afro-American dance was usually in the avant-garde of modern dance Dunham's entire career spans the period of the emergence of Afro-American dance as a serious art. Back in the United States she formed an all-black dance troupe, which in 1940 performed her Tropics and Le Jazz . 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. 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. ..American Anthropologist.. 112, no. At this time Dunham first became associated with designer John Pratt, whom she later married. After her company performed successfully, Dunham was chosen as dance director of the Chicago Negro Theater Unit of the Federal Theatre Project. She did this for many reasons. [37] One historian noted that "during the course of the tour, Dunham and the troupe had recurrent problems with racial discrimination, leading her to a posture of militancy which was to characterize her subsequent career."[38]. The company was located on the property that formerly belonged to the Isadora Duncan Dance in Caravan Hill but subsequently moved to W 43rd Street. 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. She was instrumental in getting respect for Black dancers on the concert dance stage and directed the first self-supported Black dance company. Members of Dunham's last New York Company auditioned to become members of the Met Ballet Company. In 1940, she formed the Katherine Dunham Dance Company, which became the premier facility for training dancers. After Mexico, Dunham began touring in Europe, where she was an immediate sensation. Radcliffe-Brown, Fred Eggan, and many others that she met in and around the University of Chicago. She was also consulted on costuming for the Egyptian and Ethiopian dress. Katherine Dunham was born on the 22nd of June, 1909 in Chicago before she was taken by her parents to their hometown at Glen Ellyn in Illinois. "[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. Cruz Banks, Ojeya. Jeff Dunham hails from Dallas, Texas. "Katherine Dunham: Decolonizing Anthropology Through African American Dance Pedagogy. 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. forming a powerful personal. [54] This wave continued throughout the 1990s with scholars publishing works (such as Decolonizing Anthropology: Moving Further in Anthropology for Liberation,[55] Decolonizing Methodologies,[56] and more recently, The Case for Letting Anthropology Burn[57]) that critique anthropology and the discipline's roles in colonial knowledge production and power structures. On graduating with a bachelors degree in anthropology she undertook field studies in the Caribbean and in Brazil. for teaching dance that is still la'ag'ya , Shange , Veraruzana, nanigo. [12] Example. teaches us about the impact Katherine Dunham left on the dance community & on the world. 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. After he became her artistic collaborator, they became romantically involved. She choreographed for Broadway stage productions and operaincluding Aida (1963) for the New York Metropolitan Opera. He lived on 5 January 1931 and passed away on 1 December 1989. 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. The first work, entitled A Touch of Innocence: Memoirs of Childhood, was published in 1959. Katherine Dunham is the inventor of the Dunham technique and a renowned dancer and choreographer of African-American descent. Her popular books are Island Possessed (1969), Touch of Innocence (1959), Dances of Haiti (1983), Kaiso! "Katherine Dunham's Dance as Public Anthropology." While in Haiti, she hasn't only studied Vodun rituals, but also participated and became a mambo, female high priest in the Vodun religion. 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. 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. However, after her father remarried, Albert Sr. and his new wife, Annette Poindexter Dunham, took in Katherine and her brother. [26] This work was never produced in Joplin's lifetime, but since the 1970s, it has been successfully produced in many venues. Fun Facts. The committee voted unanimously to award $2,400 (more than $40,000 in today's money) to support her fieldwork in the Caribbean. Actress: Star Spangled Rhythm. 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. . [6][10] While still a high school student, she opened a private dance school for young black children. Although it was well received by the audience, local censors feared that the revealing costumes and provocative dances might compromise public morals. [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. However, fully aware of her passion for both dance performance, as well as anthropological research, she felt she had to choose between the two. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. 7 Katherine Dunham facts. [35] In a different interview, Dunham describes her technique "as a way of life,[36]" a sentiment that seems to be shared by many of her admiring students. Died: May 21, 2006. She wrote that he "opened the floodgates of anthropology" for her. katherine dunham fun factsaiken county sc register of deeds katherine dunham fun facts Katherine Dunham is credited Her dance troupe in venues around. Initially scheduled for a single performance, the show was so popular that the troupe repeated it for another ten Sundays. In 1978, an anthology of writings by and about her, also entitled Kaiso! Jobson, Ryan Cecil. In recognition of her stance, President Aristide later awarded her a medal of Haiti's highest honor. 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. "Between Primitivism and Diaspora: The Dance Performances of Josephine Baker, Zora Neale Hurston, and Katherine Dunham". Together, they produced the first version of her dance composition L'Ag'Ya, which premiered on January 27, 1938, as a part of the Federal Theater Project in Chicago. This won international acclaim and is now taught as a modern dance style in many dance schools. Another fact is that it was the sometime home of the pioneering black American dancer Katherine Dunham. See "Selected Bibliography of Writings by Katherine Dunham" in Clark and Johnson. - Pic Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images. Also Known For : . Understanding that the fact was due to racial discrimination, she made sure the incident was publicized. Banks, Ojeya Cruz. 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. [1] She is best known for bringing African and Caribbean dance styles to the US. Birth date: October 17, 1956. Katherine Dunham PhB'36. [11], During her time in Chicago, Dunham enjoyed holding social gatherings and inviting visitors to her apartment. 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. By Renata Sago. 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. Dunham, Katherine dnm . [7] The family moved to a predominantly white neighborhood in Joliet, Illinois. She directed the Katherine Dunham School of Dance in New York, and was artist-in-residence at Southern Illinois University. There, he ran a dry cleaning business in a place mostly occupied by white people. 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. This gained international headlines and the embarrassed local police officials quickly released her. Her work helped send astronauts to the . Katherine Dunham, was mounted at the Women's Center on the campus. Katherine Dunham. Others who attended her school included James Dean, Gregory Peck, Jose Ferrer, Jennifer Jones, Shelley Winters, Sidney Poitier, Shirley MacLaine and Warren Beatty. Dancer Born in Illinois #12. 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. 2023 The HistoryMakers. Dunham is credited with introducing international audiences to African aesthetics and establishing African dance as a true art form. American dancer, choreographer, and anthropologist. Her dance company was provided with rent-free studio space for three years by an admirer and patron, Lee Shubert; it had an initial enrollment of 350 students. In 2000 Katherine Dunham was named America's irreplaceable Dance Treasure. Her legacy was far-reaching, both in dance and her cultural and social work. A fictional work based on her African experiences, Kasamance: A Fantasy, was published in 1974. She was likely named after Catherine of Aragon. [3] She created many all-black dance groups. Dunham's dance career first began in Chicago when she joined the Little Theater Company of Harper Avenue. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200003840/. 1910-2006. 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. In her biography, Joyce Aschenbrenner (2002), credits Ms Dunham as the "matriarch and queen mother of black dance", and describes her work as: "fundamentally . Video. Dunham passed away on Sunday, May 21, 2006 at the age of 96. Example. [5] She had an older brother, Albert Jr., with whom she had a close relationship. Most Popular #73650. The school was managed in Dunham's absence by Syvilla Fort, one of her dancers, and thrived for about 10 years. In 1967 she officially retired, after presenting a final show at the famous Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York. ((Photographer unknown, Courtesy of Missouri History Museum Photograph and Prints collection. "Her mastery of body movement was considered 'phenomenal.' [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. Lyndon B. Johnson was in the audience for opening night. 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! theatrical designers john pratt. Katherine Dunham Biography, Life, Interesting Facts. She arranged a fundraising cabaret for a Methodist Church, where she did her first public performance when she was 15 years old. A dance choreographer. Katherine Dunham (1909-2006) brought African dance aesthetics to the United States, forever influencing modern and jazz dance. [6] After her mother died, her father left the children with their aunt Lulu on Chicago's South Side. Smith, Linda Tuhiwai. Her choreography and performances made use of a concept within Dance Anthropology called "research-to-performance". 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. These experiences provided ample material for the numerous books, articles and short stories Dunham authored. The group performed Dunham's Negro Rhapsody at the Chicago Beaux Arts Ball. After noticing that Katherine enjoyed working and socializing with people, her brother suggested that she study Anthropology. [13] Under their tutelage, she showed great promise in her ethnographic studies of dance. Katherine Dunham predated, pioneered, and demonstrated new ways of doing and envisioning Anthropology six decades ahead of the discipline. New York City, U.S. [13], Dunham officially joined the department in 1929 as an anthropology major,[13] while studying dances of the African diaspora. ", Examples include: The Ballet in film "Stormy Weather" (Stone 1943) and "Mambo" (Rossen 1954). These exercises prepare the dancers for African social and spiritual dances[31] that are practiced later in the class including the Mahi,[32] Yonvalou,[33] and Congo Paillette.
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