Katherine Dunham facts for kids. Luminaries like Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey and Katherine Dunham began to shape and define what this new genre of dance would be. The recipient of numerous awards, Dunham received a Kennedy Center Honor in 1983 and the National Medal of Arts in 1989. One of her fellow professors, with whom she collaborated, was architect Buckminster Fuller. In 2000 she was named one of the first one hundred of "America's Irreplaceable Dance Treasures" by the Dance Heritage Coalition. Receiving a post graduate academic fellowship, she went to the Caribbean to study the African diaspora, ethnography and local dance. [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. 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. After her company performed successfully, Dunham was chosen as dance director of the Chicago Negro Theater Unit of the Federal Theatre Project. Dunham Technique was created by Katherine Dunham, a legend in the worlds of dance and anthropology. Katherine Dunham predated, pioneered, and demonstrated new ways of doing and envisioning Anthropology six decades ahead of the discipline. 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. Katherine Dunham is credited Her dance troupe in venues around. The 1940s and 1950s saw the successors to the pioneers, give rise to such new stylistic variations through the work of artistic giants such as Jos Limn and Merce Cunningham. 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. Anna Kisselgoff, a dance critic for The New York Times, called Dunham "a major pioneer in Black theatrical dance ahead of her time." Katherine Mary Dunham (June 22, 1909 - May 21, 2006) was an American dancer, choreographer, creator of the Dunham Technique, author, educator, anthropologist, and social activist. 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. One example of this was studying how dance manifests within Haitian Vodou. Dunham was exposed to sacred ritual dances performed by people on the islands of Haiti and Jamaica. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. Katherine Dunham or the "Matriarch of Black Dance'' as many called her, was a revolutionary African American anthropologist and professional dancer. "Katherine Dunham: Decolonizing Anthropology through African American Dance Pedagogy." 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. Dancer. 1. In 1945, Dunham opened and directed the Katherine Dunham School of Dance and Theatre near Times Square in New York City. [18] to the Department of Anthropology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a master's degree. Facts about Alvin Ailey talk about the famous African-American activist and choreographer. In 1978 Dunham was featured in the PBS special, Divine Drumbeats: Katherine Dunham and Her People, narrated by James Earl Jones, as part of the Dance in America series. "Katherine Dunham's Dance as Public Anthropology." "My job", she said, "is to create a useful legacy. In 1938 she joined the Federal Theatre Project in Chicago and composed a ballet, LAgYa, based on Caribbean dance. Katherine Dunham. Dunham, who died at the age of 96 [in 2006], was an anthropologist and political activist, especially on behalf of the rights of black people. Dunham herself was quietly involved in both the Voodoo and Orisa communities of the Caribbean and the United States, in particular with the Lucumi tradition. 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]. During her tenure, she secured funding for the Performing Arts Training Center, where she introduced a program designed to channel the energy of the communitys youth away from gangs and into dance. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. 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. She directed the Katherine Dunham School of Dance in New York, and was artist-in-residence at Southern Illinois University. She died a month before her 97th birthday.[53]. Dunham is a ventriloquist comedian and uses seven different puppets in his act, known by his fans as the "suitcase posse." His first Comedy Central Presents special premiered in 2003. At an early age, Dunham became interested in dance. It was considered one of the best learning centers of its type at the time. [5] She had an older brother, Albert Jr., with whom she had a close relationship. [3] She created many all-black dance groups. informed by new methods of america's most highly regarded. Banks, Ojeya Cruz. Jeff Dunham hails from Dallas, Texas. The impresario Sol Hurok, manager of Dunham's troupe for a time, once had Ms. Dunham's legs insured for $250,000. ", "Kaiso! katherine dunham fun factsaiken county sc register of deeds katherine dunham fun facts He was only one of a number of international celebrities who were Dunham's friends. In 1976, Dunham was guest artist-in-residence and lecturer for Afro-American studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Transforming Anthropology 20, no. until hia death in the 1986. "What Dunham gave modern dance was a coherent lexicon of African and Caribbean styles of movementa flexible torso and spine, articulated pelvis and isolation of the limbs, a polyrhythmic strategy of movingwhich she integrated with techniques of ballet and modern dance." 6 Katherine Dunham facts. She majored in anthropology at the University of Chicago, and after learning that much of Black . Our site is COPPA and kidSAFE-certified, so you can rest assured it's a safe place for kids . 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. Each procession builds on the last and focuses on conditioning the body to prepare for specific exercises that come later. In 1939, Dunham's company gave additional performances in Chicago and Cincinnati and then returned to New York. 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. 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. In this post, she choreographed the Chicago production of Run Li'l Chil'lun, performed at the Goodman Theater. Dunham continued to develop dozens of new productions during this period, and the company met with enthusiastic audiences in every city. Two years later she formed an all-Black company, which began touring extensively by 1943. Transforming Anthropology 20 (2012): 159168. [1] Dunham also created the Dunham Technique. [6] At the age of 15, she organized "The Blue Moon Caf", a fundraising cabaret to raise money for Brown's Methodist Church in Joliet, where she gave her first public performance. Dunham is still taught at widely recognized dance institutions such as The American Dance Festival and The Ailey School. 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. Katherine was also an activist, author, educator, and anthropologist. "Between Primitivism and Diaspora: The Dance Performances of Josephine Baker, Zora Neale Hurston, and Katherine Dunham". In September 1943, under the management of the impresario Sol Hurok, her troupe opened in Tropical Review at the Martin Beck Theater. New York: Rizzoli, 1989. Childhood & Early Life. [34], According to Dunham, the development of her technique came out of a need for specialized dancers to support her choreographic visions and a greater yearning for technique that "said the things that [she] wanted to say. Alvin Ailey later produced a tribute for her in 198788 at Carnegie Hall with his American Dance Theater, entitled The Magic of Katherine Dunham. 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. [58] Early on into graduate school, Dunham was forced to choose between finishing her master's degree in anthropology and pursuing her career in dance. Many of her students, trained in her studios in Chicago and New York City, became prominent in the field of modern dance. Other Interesting Katherine Dunham Facts And Trivia 'Come Back To Arizona', a short story Katherine Dunham penned when she was 12 years old, was published in 1921 in volume two of 'The Brownies' Book'. [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. Her legacy was far-reaching, both in dance and her cultural and social work. 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 . [6] After her mother died, her father left the children with their aunt Lulu on Chicago's South Side. By Renata Sago. In 1967, Dunham opened the Performing Arts Training Center (PATC) in East St. Louis in an effort to use the arts to combat poverty and urban unrest. Katherine Dunham, was published in a limited, numbered edition of 130 copies by the Institute for the Study of Social Change. It opened in Chicago in 1933, with a black cast and with Page dancing the title role. These experiences provided ample material for the numerous books, articles and short stories Dunham authored. [59] She ultimately chose to continue her career in dance without her master's degree in anthropology. 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. A continuation based on her experiences in Haiti, Island Possessed, was published in 1969. Question 2. Born: June 22, 1909. (She later took a Ph.D. in anthropology.) However, it has now became a common practice within the discipline. Dancer, anthropologist, social worker, activist, author. [61][62][63][64] During this time, in addition to Dunham, numerous Black women such as Zora Neal Hurston, Caroline Bond Day, Irene Diggs, and Erna Brodber were also working to transform the discipline into an anthropology of liberation: employing critical and creative cultural production.[54]. Marlon Brando frequently dropped in to play the bongo drums, and jazz musician Charles Mingus held regular jam sessions with the drummers. In the summer of 1941, after the national tour of Cabin in the Sky ended, they went to Mexico, where inter-racial marriages were less controversial than in the United States, and engaged in a commitment ceremony on 20 July, which thereafter they gave as the date of their wedding. Dunham had one of the most successful dance careers of the 20th century, and directed her own dance company for many years. 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. Initially scheduled for a single performance, the show was so popular that the troupe repeated it for another ten Sundays.
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