Innovator in African-American modern dance

Dunham was an innovator in African-American modern dance as well as a leader in the field of dance anthropology, or ethnochoreology. Taking inspiration from African-based dance where one part of the body plays against one another, she focused on articulating the torso in her choreography; this became known as the Dunham Technique. 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." For almost 30 years she maintained the Katherine Dunham Dance Company, the only self-supported American black dance troupe at that time. Over her long career, she choreographed more than ninety individual dances. 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. As part of her Masters thesis did ethnographic studies of dance in Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique & Trinidad. Developed the Dunham Technique of Dance.

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Category:
Arts - Dance

Completion Status:
yes

Patent Number:
N/A

Co-Inventor:
None