When you have faith in something, it's your reason to be alive and to fight for it. This gained international headlines and the embarrassed local police officials quickly released her. [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. As celebrities, their voices can have a profound influence on popular culture. She was born on June 22, 1909 in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, a small . "Katherine Dunham's Dance as Public Anthropology." Katherine Dunham Biography for Kids - lottie.com 8 Katherine Dunham facts - Katherine dunham [13] University of Chicago's anthropology department was fairly new and the students were still encouraged to learn aspects of sociology, distinguishing it from other anthropology departments in the US that focused almost exclusively on non-Western peoples. [21] This style of participant observation research was not yet common within the discipline of anthropology. She also appeared in the Broadway musicals "Bal . [52], On May 21, 2006, Dunham died in her sleep from natural causes in New York City. [20] She recorded her findings through ethnographic fieldnotes and by learning dance techniques, music and song, alongside her interlocutors. 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. Katherine Dunham was an American dancer and choreographer, credited to have brought the influence of Africa and the Caribbean into American dance . Katherine Dunham and the dances of the African diaspora It opened in Chicago in 1933, with a black cast and with Page dancing the title role. The Washington Post called her "dancer Katherine the Great." Here are some interesting facts about Alvin Ailey for you: Facts about Alvin Ailey 1: the popular modern dance Cruz Banks, Ojeya. The family moved to Joliet, Illinois when her father remarried. He started doing stand-up comedy in the late 1980s. Her work helped send astronauts to the . 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 . Subsequently, Dunham undertook various choreographic commissions at several venues in the United States and in Europe. Radcliffe-Brown, Edward Sapir, Melville Herskovits, Lloyd Warner and Bronisaw Malinowski. But what set her work even further apart from Martha Graham and Jos Limn was her fusion of that foundation with Afro-Caribbean styles. Anthropology News 33, no. [1] Dunham also created the Dunham Technique. 6 Katherine Dunham facts. Dunham passed away on Sunday, May 21, 2006 at the age of 96. 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. Died On : May 21, 2006. Katherine Dunham (born June 22, 1909) [1] was an American dancer, choreographer, and anthropologist [1]. She was born on June 22, 1909 in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, a small suburb of Chicago, to Albert Millard Dunham, a tailor and dry cleaner, and his wife, Fanny June Dunham. 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. . Initially scheduled for a single performance, the show was so popular that the troupe repeated it for another ten Sundays. The recipient of numerous awards, Dunham received a Kennedy Center Honor in 1983 and the National Medal of Arts in 1989. Katherine Dunham - Trivia, Family, Bio | Famous Birthdays 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. Dunham Technique was created by Katherine Dunham, a legend in the worlds of dance and anthropology. Katherine Dunham's Biography - The HistoryMakers All You Need to Know About Dunham Technique. On one of these visits, during the late 1940s, she purchased a large property of more than seven hectares (approximately 17.3 acres) in the Carrefours suburban area of Port-au-Prince, known as Habitation Leclerc. Her many original works include Lagya, Shango and Bal Negre. Dunham is still taught at widely recognized dance institutions such as The American Dance Festival and The Ailey School. 1. 4 (December 2010): 640642. Dunham created Rara Tonga and Woman with a Cigar at this time, which became well known. In Hollywood, Dunham refused to sign a lucrative studio contract when the producer said she would have to replace some of her darker-skinned company members. Katherine Dunham: Dance and the African Diaspora - Goodreads Digital Library. Katherine Dunham on Break the FACTS! - YouTube 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. Corrections? "Katherine Dunham: Decolonizing Anthropology through African American Dance Pedagogy." Dunham is credited with introducing international audiences to African aesthetics and establishing African dance as a true art form. The Katherine Dunham Company became an incubator for many well known performers, including Archie Savage, Talley Beatty, Janet Collins, Lenwood Morris, Vanoye Aikens, Lucille Ellis, Pearl Reynolds, Camille Yarbrough, Lavinia Williams, and Tommy Gomez. Her fieldwork inspired her innovative interpretations of dance in the Caribbean, South America, and Africa. Among her dancers selected were Marcia McBroom, Dana McBroom, Jean Kelly, and Jesse Oliver. most important pedagogues original work which includes :Batuada. "The Case for Letting Anthropology Burn: Sociocultural Anthropology in 2019." [18] to the Department of Anthropology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a master's degree. She Learned From Katherine Dunham. At 93, She's Teaching Her Technique [11], During her time in Chicago, Dunham enjoyed holding social gatherings and inviting visitors to her apartment. Luminaries like Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey and Katherine Dunham began to shape and define what this new genre of dance would be. Katherine Dunham - Dance She had incurred the displeasure of departmental officials when her company performed Southland, a ballet that dramatized the lynching of a black man in the racist American South. 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. 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.". 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 "your management will not allow people like you to sit next to people like us." In 1963, she became the first African American to choreograph for the Met since Hemsley Winfield set the dances for The Emperor Jones in 1933. 10 Facts about Alvin Ailey - Fact File He was only one of a number of international celebrities who were Dunham's friends. 7 Katherine Dunham facts. Katherine Dunham Birthday & Fun Facts | Kidadl The State Department regularly subsidized other less well-known groups, but it consistently refused to support her company (even when it was entertaining U.S. Army troops), although at the same time it did not hesitate to take credit for them as "unofficial artistic and cultural representatives". The incident was widely discussed in the Brazilian press and became a hot political issue. Dunham was exposed to sacred ritual dances performed by people on the islands of Haiti and Jamaica. Katherine Dunham Facts for Kids 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. Gender: Female. 3 (1992): 24. In 1978, an anthology of writings by and about her, also entitled Kaiso! The schools she created helped train such notables as Alvin Ailey and Jerome Robbins in the "Dunham technique." Death . Please scroll down to enjoy more supporting materials. Dancer, anthropologist, social worker, activist, author. Katherine Dunham, a world-renowned dancer and choreographer, had big plans for East St. Louis in 1977. Katherine Dunham and her Haitian legacy - Dance Australia Katherine Dunham | Biography, Dance, Technique, Dance - Britannica Unlike other modern dance creators who eschewed classical ballet, Dunham embraced it as a foundation for her technique. In 1921, a short story she wrote when she was 12 years old, called "Come Back to Arizona", was published in volume 2 of The Brownies' Book. Jeff Dunham hails from Dallas, Texas. He continued as her artistic collaborator until his death in 1986. . Dunham had one of the most successful dance careers in African-American and European theater of the 20th . [6][10] While still a high school student, she opened a private dance school for young black children. After this well-received performance in 1931, the group was disbanded. 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. Her father was a descendant of slaves from West Africa, and her mother was a mix of French-Canadian and Native-American heritage. Katherine Dunham. 2 (2020): 259271. She was likely named after Catherine of Aragon. These experiences provided ample material for the numerous books, articles and short stories Dunham authored. Schools inspired by it were later opened in Stockholm, Paris, and Rome by dancers who had been trained by Dunham. In 1963 Dunham was commissioned to choreograph Aida at New York's Metropolitan Opera Company, with Leontyne Price in the title role. . At an early age, Dunham became interested in dance. [49] In fact, that ceremony was not recognized as a legal marriage in the United States, a point of law that would come to trouble them some years later. Katherine Dunham always had an interest in dance and anthropology so her main goal in life was to combine them. Birthday : June 22, 1909. Katherine Dunham got an early bachelor's degree in anthropology as a student at the University of Chicago. They were stranded without money because of bad management by their impresario. Katherine Dunham. 10 Facts About Katherine Johnson - Mental Floss When she was not performing, Dunham and Pratt often visited Haiti for extended stays. Not only did Dunham shed light on the cultural value of black dance, but she clearly contributed to changing perceptions of blacks in America by showing society that as a black woman, she could be an intelligent scholar, a beautiful dancer, and a skilled choreographer. Over her long career, she choreographed more than ninety individual dances. Its premiere performance on December 9, 1950, at the Teatro Municipal in Santiago, Chile,[39][40] generated considerable public interest in the early months of 1951. Through her ballet teachers, she was also exposed to Spanish, East Indian, Javanese, and Balinese dance forms.[23]. This won international acclaim and is now taught as a modern dance style in many dance schools. She returned to graduate school and submitted a master's thesis to the anthropology faculty. [54] 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.[54], Just like her colleague Zora Neale Hurston, Dunham's anthropology inspired the blurring of lines between creative disciplines and anthropology. Katherine Johnson graduated from college at age 18. Katherine Dunham in 1956. 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 (born June 22, 1909) [1] [2] was an American dancer, choreographer, and anthropologist. 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. The Met Ballet Company dancers studied Dunham Technique at Dunham's 42nd Street dance studio for the entire summer leading up to the season opening of Aida. As this show continued its run at the Windsor Theater, Dunham booked her own company in the theater for a Sunday performance. At the age of 82, Dunham went on a hunger strike in . She choreographed for Broadway stage productions and operaincluding Aida (1963) for the New York Metropolitan Opera. [7] The family moved to a predominantly white neighborhood in Joliet, Illinois. It next moved to the West Coast for an extended run of performances there. 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. [10], After completing her studies at Joliet Junior College in 1928, Dunham moved to Chicago to join her brother Albert at the University of Chicago. The company soon embarked on a tour of venues in South America, Europe, and North Africa. As a dancer and choreographer, Katherine Dunham (1910-2002) wowed audiences in the 1930s and 1940s when she combined classical ballet with African rhythms to create an exciting new dance style. Kantherine Dunham passed away of natural causes on May 21, 2006, one month before her 97th birthday. 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 . [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]. Katherine Dunham Biography, Life, Interesting Facts. Through much study and time, she eventually became one of the founders of the field of dance anthropology. 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. She also created several other works of choreography, including The Emperor Jones (a response to the play by Eugene O'Neill) and Barrelhouse. Birth City: Decatur. Decolonozing Anthropology: Katherine "the Great" Dunham Dunham's background as an anthropologist gave the dances of the opera a new authenticity. 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