Although Dunham was offered another grant from the Rockefeller Foundation to pursue her academic studies, she chose dance. She did this for many reasons. However, one key reason was that she knew she would be able to reach a broader public through dance, as opposed to the inaccessible institutions of academia.
What did Katherine Dunham contribute to the dance world?
During the 1930’s, Katherine Dunham made significant artistic choreography of American dance through transforming the roots of black dance and rituals into choreography of many ethnicities. Dance history owes her a great deal for introducing Caribbean influences to Europe’s repertoire. what was jazz dance influenced by?
Who influenced Katherine Dunham?
Racial politics and social work. Ms Dunham developed a dance style influenced by African movement and performed largely by African American dancers against a backdrop of racism and segregation in 1940s. Her career was political throughout.
What awards did Katherine Dunham win?
Throughout her distinguished career, Dunham earned numerous honorary doctorates, awards and honors. She was the recipient of a Kennedy Center Honors Award, the Plaque d'Honneur Haitian-American Chamber of Commerce Award, and a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame. Dunham passed away on Sunday, May 21, 2006 at the age of 96.
What type of dances did Katherine Dunham do?
Katherine Dunham's technique includes both ballet and modern dance. 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." Although she was not considered a jazz dancer, her fieldwork, choreography and the Dunham technique have greatly influenced jazz dance.
How did Katherine Dunham influence dance?
Katherine Dunham (1909–2006) brought African dance aesthetics to the United States, forever influencing modern and jazz dance. She was instrumental in getting respect for Black dancers on the concert dance stage and directed the first self-supported Black dance company.
What kind of dance did Katherine Dunham do?
Dunham was an innovator in African-American modern dance as well as a leader in the field of dance anthropology, or ethnochoreology. She also developed the Dunham Technique, a method of movement to support her dance works.
Where did Katherine Dunham learn to dance?
the University of ChicagoWhile a student at the University of Chicago, she formed a dance group that performed in concert at the Chicago World's Fair in 1934 and with the Chicago Civic Opera company in 1935–36.
Who is the first dancer?
Graham danced and taught for over seventy years....Martha GrahamBornMay 11, 1894 Allegheny (later Pittsburgh), Pennsylvania, U.S.DiedApril 1, 1991 (aged 96) New York City, U.S.Known forDance and choreography4 more rows
How did Katherine Dunham contribute to jazz dance?
Often recognized for her research in the Caribbean and on African dance traditions, Dunham's research also extended to black dance traditions of America. Her research in American black dance traditions unearthed and contributed to the foundations of jazz dance and black vernacular movement vocabularies.
What was the name of Katherine's dance technique?
the Dunham TechniqueA performance of the Dunham Technique involves the merging of polyrhythmic dance styles in continual motion. Katherine Dunham was the first to combine the individualistic dance movements of Caribbean and African cultures with European-style ballet.
What age did Katherine Dunham start dancing?
1922. In high school, Katherine Dunham joins the Terpsichorean Club and begins to learn a kind of free-style modern dance based on ideas of Jaques-Dalcroze and Rudolf von Laban. At fourteen, to help raise money for her church, she organizes a "cabaret party." She is the producer, director, and star of the entertainment ...
What is a forced arch in jazz?
forced arch: Weightbearing position of the foot in which the heel is lifted and the knee is bent with extreme metatarsal dorsiflexion.
What is Katherine Dunham best known for?
Born in 1909 in Chicago, Katherine Dunham is an American dancer-choreographer who is best known for incorporating African American, Caribbean, African, and South American movement styles and themes into her ballets.
What is a forced arch in jazz?
forced arch: Weightbearing position of the foot in which the heel is lifted and the knee is bent with extreme metatarsal dorsiflexion.
What were Katherine Dunham accomplishments?
Katherine Dunham was an African-American dancer and choreographer, producer, author, scholar, anthropologist and Civil Rights activist. 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.
Who was an important pioneer of jazz dance?
Jack ColeBoth the Father of Jazz Dance Technique and the Father of Jazz Dance, Jack Cole worked to combine modern dance techniques with jazz style. Jack Cole was the first to create a set technique that was shown on stages and on the big screen during the 1940s and 1950s.
What was Katherine Dunham's first work?
Tropics (choreographed 1937) and Le Jazz Hot (1938) were among the earliest of many works based on her research. Katherine Dunham in Tropical Revue, 1943. Dunham was both a popular entertainer and a serious artist intent on tracing the roots of black culture.
Who is Katherine Dunham?
Katherine Dunham, pseudonym Kaye Dunn, (born June 22, 1909, Glen Ellyn, Ill., U.S.—died May 21, 2006, New York, N.Y.), American dancer, choreographer, and anthropologist noted for her innovative interpretations of ritualistic and ethnic dances. Meet extraordinary women who dared to bring gender equality and other issues to the forefront.
Who were the young songwriters in the 1960s?
New York City 1960s overview. At the start of the decade, Paul Simon, Neil Diamond, and Lou Reed were among the hopeful young songwriters walking the warrenlike corridors and knocking on the glass-paneled doors of publishers in the Brill Building and its neighbours along Broadway.
What was the Katherine Dunham School of Cultural Arts?
The program included courses in dance, drama, performing arts, applied skills, humanities, cultural studies, and Caribbean research. In 1947 it was expanded and granted a charter as the Katherine Dunham School of Cultural Arts. The school was managed in Dunham's absence by Syvilla Fort, one of her dancers, and thrived for about 10 years. It was considered one of the best learning centers of its type at the time. Schools inspired by it were later opened in Stockholm, Paris, and Rome by dancers who had been trained by Dunham.
How did Katherine Dunham use her anthropology?
Six decades before this new wave of anthropological discourse began, Katherine Dunham's work demonstrated anthropology being used as a force for challenging racist and colonial ideologies. 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. Her dance education, while offering cultural resources for dealing with the consequences and realities of living in a racist environment, also brought about feelings of hope and dignity for inspiring her students to contribute positively to their own communities, and spreading essential cultural and spiritual capital within the U.S.
What did Dunham do in Haiti?
While in Haiti, Dunham investigated Vodun rituals and made extensive research notes, particularly on the dance movements of the participants. She recorded her findings through ethnographic fieldnotes and by learning dance techniques, music and song, alongside her interlocutors. This style of participant observation research was not yet common within the discipline of anthropology. However, it has now became a common practice within the discipline. 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. 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. Years later, after extensive studies and initiations in Haiti, she became a mambo in the Vodun religion. She also became friends with, among others, Dumarsais Estimé, then a high-level politician, who became president of Haiti in 1949. Somewhat later, she assisted him, at considerable risk to her life, when he was persecuted for his progressive policies and sent in exile to Jamaica after a coup d'état .
Why did Dunham encourage gang members to come to the PATC?
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. The PATC teaching staff was made up of former members of Dunham's touring company, as well as local residents.
What was Katherine Dunham's professional calling?
She realized that her professional calling was performance . 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. The Washington Post called her "dancer Katherine the Great".
Why did Dunham refuse to stay in a hotel?
Understanding that the fact was due to racial discrimination, she made sure the incident was publicized. The incident was widely discussed in the Brazilian press and became a hot political issue. In response, the Afonso Arinos law was passed in 1951 that made racial discrimination in public places a felony in Brazil.
How many countries did the Dunham Company perform in?
During these years, the Dunham company appeared in some 33 countries in Europe, North Africa, South America, Australia, and East Asia. Dunham continued to develop dozens of new productions during this period, and the company met with enthusiastic audiences in every city. 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.
What was Katherine Dunham's mission?
She found a context for her mission of 'culturalization,' as she termed it, in the ravaged city of East St. Louis, Illinois, by joining with the black social and political movements of the time (Aschenbrenner 173).
What was the role of Dunham in the city?
A moderate, older leader, Dunham attempted a difficult balancing act, trying simultaneously to challenge the city establishment and mobilize the community while tamping down potential violence from the city's youthful militants (Look er).
Who is Katherine Dunham?
Katherine Dunham was a legendary anthropologist, dancer, choreographer and social activist who transformed the art of modern dance by combining ethnic influences with stunning dance technique. Here is her story.
Did Katherine Dunham dance?
Born on June 22, 1909, Katherine Dunham did not initially consider a career in dance. She did, however, grow up as both a rebel and an artist. She performed in her local Methodist Church, and at the age of eight, she shocked the elders of her church with her performance of inarguably non-religious songs.
What was Katherine Dunham's dance company?
In 1940, she formed the Katherine Dunham Dance Company, which became the premier facility for training dancers. Alumnae include Eartha Kitt, Marlon Brando and Julie Belafonte. Dunham is credited with introducing international audiences to African aesthetics and establishing African dance as a true art form. 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. Her many original works include L’ag’ya, Shango and Bal Negre. She also choreographed and appeared in Broadway musicals, operas and the film Cabin in the Sky.
Who is Katherine Dunham?
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. At an early age, Dunham became interested in dance. However, she did not seriously pursue a career in the profession until she was a student at the University of Chicago.
What is the Dunham technique?
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.
What happened to Katherine Dunham Museum?
The Katherine Dunham Museum in East St. Louis was damaged by flooding. Image courtesy of Katherine Dunham Centers for Arts and Humanities. United States, undated.
What is the Dunham technique?
Dunham is best known for bringing dances from various Black traditions to a wider audience on stages in America and around the world. In the 1930s, she founded the country's first self-supporting Black modern-dance troupe and led it to more than 50 countries on six continents, according to the New York Times. She pioneered what is now known as the Dunham Technique, which combines Caribbean dance, ballet, African rituals, and African American rhythms.
Why did the Dunham Centers get shelter in place?
Around the same time as all this, Illinois Gov. J. B. Pritzker also issued a shelter-in-place order in response to the spread of the coronavirus, which meant the Dunham Centers could no longer offer tours, dance workshops and other programming.
Why are African American museums underfunded?
African American museums are underfunded due to historical barriers, cultural preferences for charitable giving, institutional youth, and a dearth of professional business and museum skills."
Where did Corbett dance?
Corbett says her time dancing at the Dunham Centers "sculpted the trajectory of my career. I wouldn't be a dance artist, and I wouldn't be a dance educator, if I hadn't been taking classes down there."
Where did Dunham spend his time?
Dunham spent significant time in East St. Louis on classes and seminars. When Backstrom joined the board in 2004, there were still classes on sewing, spoken word, music, drama, and poetry.
Where does Katherine Dunham live?
Katherine Dunham's ambition lives on at the East St. Louis centers. Illustration by Evan Sult.
Overview
Educator and writer
In 1945, Dunham opened and directed the Katherine Dunham School of Dance and Theatre near Times Square in New York City. 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.
The program included courses in dance, drama, performing arts, applied skills…
Early years
Katherine Mary Dunham was born on 22 June 1909 in a Chicago hospital. Her father, Albert Millard Dunham, was a descendant of slaves from West Africa and Madagascar. 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. She had an older brother, Albert Jr., with whom she had a close relationship. After her mother died, her father left the child…
Academia and anthropology
After completing her studies at Joliet Junior College in 1928, Dunham moved to Chicago to join her brother Albert at the University of Chicago.
During her time in Chicago, Dunham enjoyed holding social gatherings and inviting visitors to her apartment. Such visitors included ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax, novelist and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston, Robert Redfield, Bronisław Malinowski, A.R. Radcliffe-Brown, Fred Eggan, and ma…
Ethnographic fieldwork
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. (She later wrote Journey to Accompong, a book describing her experiences there.) 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. Early in 193…
Dancer and choreographer
Dunham's dance career first began in Chicago when she joined the Little Theater Company of Harper Avenue. In 1928, while still an undergraduate, Dunham began to study ballet with Ludmilla Speranzeva, a Russian dancer who had settled in Chicago, after having come to the United States with the Franco-Russian vaudeville troupe Le Théâtre de la Chauve-Souris, directed by impres…
Social activism
The Katherine Dunham Company toured throughout North America in the mid-1940s, performing as well in the racially segregated South. 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. On another occasion, in October 1944, after getting a rousing standing ovation in Louisville, Kentucky, she told the all-white audience that she and her company would not return because "…
Personal life
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. 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. Pratt, who was white, shared Dunham's interests in African-Caribbean cultures and was happy to put his talents in her service. After he became her artistic …