Katherine Dunham. She wanted to know not only how people danced but why they dance. Katherine Dunham, Dance Icon, Dies at 96 - The New York Times 6 Katherine Dunham facts. Deren is now considered to be a pioneer of independent American filmmaking. Katherine Dunham on dance anthropology. The show created a minor controversy in the press. She has been called the "matriarch and queen mother of black dance." She was a woman far ahead of her time. In my mind, it's the most fascinating thing in the world to learn".[19]. - Pic Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images. Gender: Female. Katherine Dunham Biography - Facts, Childhood, Family Life & Achievements 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. . Through much study and time, she eventually became one of the founders of the field of dance anthropology. 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. Katherine Dunham on Break the FACTS! - YouTube 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. 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. The group performed Dunham's Negro Rhapsody at the Chicago Beaux Arts Ball. Dunham was exposed to sacred ritual dances performed by people on the islands of Haiti and Jamaica. Q. Katherine Mary Dun ham was an African-American dancer, choreographer, author, educator, anthropologist, and social activist. Video. "The Case for Letting Anthropology Burn: Sociocultural Anthropology in 2019." About Miss Dunham - Katherine Dunham Centers for Arts and Humanities Tune in & learn about the inception of. Katherine Dunham. Katherine Dunham or the "Matriarch of - Medium Named Marie-Christine Dunham Pratt, she was their only child. 2 (2020): 259271. Katherine Mary Dunham was born in Chicago in 1909. Leverne Backstrom, president of the board of the Katherine Dunham Centers for Arts and Humanities, still does. Dunham had one of the most successful dance careers in African-American and European theater of the 20th . [4] In 1938, using materials collected ethnographic fieldwork, Dunham submitted a thesis, The Dances of Haiti: A Study of Their Material Aspect, Organization, Form, and Function,. [20] She recorded her findings through ethnographic fieldnotes and by learning dance techniques, music and song, alongside her interlocutors. 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. . As Julia Foulkes pointed out, "Dunham's path to success lay in making high art in the United States from African and Caribbean sources, capitalizing on a heritage of dance within the African Diaspora, and raising perceptions of African American capabilities."[65]. Our site is COPPA and kidSAFE-certified, so you can rest assured it's a safe place for kids . She Learned From Katherine Dunham. At 93, She's Teaching Her Technique Throughout her distinguished career, Dunham earned numerous honorary doctorates, awards and honors. Dunham was active in human rights causes, and in 1992 she staged a 47-day hunger strike to highlight the plight of Haitian refugees. 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. Example. She also danced professionally, owned a dance company, and operated a dance studio. [41] The State Department was dismayed by the negative view of American society that the ballet presented to foreign audiences. She returned to graduate school and submitted a master's thesis to the anthropology faculty. American dancer and choreographer (19092006). She returned to the United States in 1936 informed by new methods of movement and expression, which she incorporated into techniques that transformed the world of 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. Fun facts about Julie Belafonte brought to you by IDTC! Text: Julie 10 Facts about Alvin Ailey - Fact File Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200003840/. Schools inspired by it were later opened in Stockholm, Paris, and Rome by dancers who had been trained by Dunham. ", 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. Katherine Mary Dunham, 22 Jun 1909 - 21 May 2006 Exhibition Label Born Glen Ellyn, Illinois One of the founders of the anthropological dance movement, Katherine Dunham distilled Caribbean and African dance elements into modern American choreography. 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. Despite 13 knee surgeries, Ms. Dunham danced professionally for more than . About Modern Dance - Jacqueline Burgess Jacqueline Burgess 1910-2006. [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. The prince was then married to actress Rita Hayworth, and Dunham was now legally married to John Pratt; a quiet ceremony in Las Vegas had taken place earlier in the year. Katherine Dunham predated, pioneered, and demonstrated new ways of doing and envisioning Anthropology six decades ahead of the discipline. 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. Dunham had one of the most successful dance careers of the 20th century, and directed her own dance company for many years. This gained international headlines and the embarrassed local police officials quickly released her. Johnson 's gift for numbers allowed her to accelerate through her education. 8 Katherine Dunham facts - Katherine dunham 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. Her fieldwork inspired her innovative interpretations of dance in the Caribbean, South America, and Africa. ", "Dunham's European success led to considerable imitation of her work in European revues it is safe to say that the perspectives of concert-theatrical dance in Europe were profoundly affected by the performances of the Dunham troupe. [7] The family moved to a predominantly white neighborhood in Joliet, Illinois. She has been called the "matriarch and queen mother of black dance."[2]. Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. Banks, Ojeya Cruz. In 1976, Dunham was guest artist-in-residence and lecturer for Afro-American studies at the University of California, Berkeley. [15] He showed her the connection between dance and social life giving her the momentum to explore a new area of anthropology, which she later termed "Dance Anthropology". 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. 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. In 2004 she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from, In 2005, she was awarded "Outstanding Leadership in Dance Research" by the. Digital Library. 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". Born in 1909 #28. 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. Divine Technique: Katherine Dunham Archive - Selkirk Auctioneers However, she did not seriously pursue a career in the profession until she was a student . 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. Her dance career was interrupted in 1935 when she received funding from the Rosenwald Foundation which allowed her to travel to Jamaica, Martinique, Trinidad, and Haiti for eighteen months to explore each country's respective dance cultures. Two years later she formed an all-Black company, which began touring extensively by 1943. It was a huge collection of writings by and about Katherine Dunham, so it naturally covered a lot of area. . The living Dunham tradition has persisted. Katherine Dunham - Facts, Bio, Favorites, Info, Family - Sticky Facts used throughout the world choros, rite de passage, los Idies, and. Numerous scholars describe Dunham as pivotal to the fields of Dance Education, Applied Anthropology, Humanistic Anthropology, African Diasporic Anthropology and Liberatory Anthropology. ZURICH Othella Dallas lay on the hardwood . There, he ran a dry cleaning business in a place mostly occupied by white people. Dancers are frequently instructed to place weight on the balls of their feet, lengthen their lumbar and cervical spines, and breathe from the abdomen and not the chest. Corrections? [11], During her time in Chicago, Dunham enjoyed holding social gatherings and inviting visitors to her apartment. 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. Beda Schmid. A Short Danceography: Katherine Dunham - YouTube Jobson, Ryan Cecil. Over her long career, she choreographed more than ninety individual dances. She is best known for bringing African and Caribbean dance styles to the US [1]. [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.