Katherine Mary Dunham
Personal Information
Born: 1909
Died: 2006
Country of Birth: USA
Nationality: USA
Ethnicity: Black
Education
Joliet Junior College 1928; University of Chicago Ph.B Anthropology 1936
""without [anthropology] I don't know what I would have done….In anthropology, I learned how to feel about myself in relation to other people…. You can't learn about dances until you learn about people. In my mind, it's the most fascinating thing in the world to learn".(Wikipedia); “The dance as an art form is an increasingly strong social force, and undoubtedly contributes to the development of new, vital material and technique that is of great social significance.” ((danceedlab.com); “I seemed always to live this sort of dual existence of having my intellect absorbed in searching out and annotating the real and authentic steps and movements, and an eye trained to see all of this color and movement and drama translated into theater idiom; and my notebooks, too, abound in marginal notes for use of the ‘real’ material in the theater when I returned home, for I was more than ever determined to have a group of dancers who would be able to show the people of the United States what others have contributed to our culture.” (dancemagazine.com); "
— Katherine Mary Dunham
Professional Life
Field of Study: Arts, Dance
Institution/Corporation: None found
Degrees & Memberships: Honorary Degree: McMurray College (1972), Atlanta University (1977) Westfield State College (1979), Brown University (1979), Dartmouth College (1979), Washington University (1981), Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville (1983) Lincoln University *1984) Howard University (1984), Tufts University (1987), Buffalo State College (1987), Spelman College (1990), Chicago State University (1993), USC (1995), Harvard university (2002); Membership: Presidents Council on Youth Opportunity (1968)
Awards & Achievements
Awards: 1983 Kennedy Center Honor; 1989 National Medal of Arts; 1971 Heritage Award, National Dance Association; 1979 Albert Schweitzer Music Award; 1986 Distinguished Service Award, American anthropological Association; 1987 Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award; 1987 National Museum of Dance's Mr. & Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney Hall of Fame; 1987 Candace Award, National Coalition of 100 Black Women; 1989 Star on St. Louis Walk of Fame; 2000 named 1 of the 1st 100 of America's Irreplaceable Dance Treasures, Dance Heritage Coalition; 2002 included in the book "100 Greatest African-Americans" by Molefi Kete Asante; 2004 Lifetime Achievement Award, Dance Teachers magazine; 2005 Outstanding Leadership in Dance Research, Congress on Research in Dance; Plaque d'Honneur Haitian-American Chamber of Commerce; 1952 named a chevalier of the Haitian Legion d'Honneur et Merite; 1968 Dance Magazine Award; 1971 Dance Division Heritage Award, American Association for Health, Physical Education & Recreation; 1972 National Center of Afro-American Artists Award, Elina Lewis School of Fine Arts Boston; 1974 Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame; 1974 Entertainment Hall of Fame Foundation; 1975 International Women's Year Award, UN Association St. Louis chapter; 1978 Dance Pioneer Award, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater; 1980 National Dance Week Award, Dance Concert Society; 1983 Grande Croix of the Legion d'Honneur et Merite, Haitian Embassy; 1986 The Southern Cross, Government of Brazil; 1986 Medal of Artistic Merit in Dance, International Council on Dance UNESCO; 1986 Oral Self-Portrait, National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institute; 1987 Ebony Magazine American Achievement Award in Fine Arts; 1988 Officier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in Haiti & France; 1988 President's Award of the National Council for Culture & Art NY; 1990 Caribbean Award, Government of Trinidad & Tobago; 1999 Smith Award, Smithsonian Institute
Achievements: innovative interpretations of dance in the Caribbean, South America, and Africa; 1938 joined the Federal Theatre Project in Chicago and composed a ballet, “L’Ag’Ya,” based on Caribbean dance; choreographed for Broadway stage productions and opera—including “Aida” (1963) for the New York Metropolitan Opera; choreographed and starred in dance sequences in such films as “Carnival of Rhythm” (1942), “Stormy Weather” (1943), and “Casbah” (1947);was artistic and technical director (1966–67) to the president of Senegal; 1992 she staged a 47-day hunger strike to highlight the plight of Haitian refugees; choreographed more than ninety individual dances; was an innovator in African-American modern dance as well as a leader in the field of dance anthropology, or ethnochoreology; developed the Dunham Technique, a method of movement to support her dance works; 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; 1967 opened the Performing Arts Training Center (PATC) in East St. Louis in an effort to use the arts to combat poverty and urban unrest; after the 1968 riots following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., she encouraged gang members in the ghetto to come to PACT to use drumming and dance to vent their frustrations; 1992, at age 83, went on a highly publicized 47-day hunger strike to protest the discriminatory U.S. foreign policy against Haitian boat-people;
while a student at the University of Chicago, formed a dance group (Ballet Negre in 1930) that performed in concert at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1934 and with the Chicago Civic Opera company in 1935–36
was intent on tracing the roots of Black culture
sometimes wrote & published under the pseudonym Kaye Dunn
has been called the "matriarch and queen mother of black dance"
father was the descendant of slaves
mother died when she was 4 (1913) & she & her brother were sent to live with a paternal aunt, a custody battle with members of her mothers family resulted in unrest in the family, she & her brother were returned to their father after he remarried in 1915
became a mambo (Priestess) in the Vodun religion
Dunham technique introduces rhythm as the backbone of various widely known modern dance principles including contraction and release, groundedness, fall and recover, counterbalance, and many more including a strong emphasis on anatomical alignment, breath, and fluidity
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
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." (Wikipedia)
in 1950 after she & her troupe were not allowed to stay in a hotel in Sao Paulo Brazil she made sure the press was aware off the racial discrimination & the negative publicity led to the 1951 passage of the Afonso Arinos law that made racial discrimination in public places a felony in Brazil
credited with introducing international audiences to African aesthetics and establishing African dance as a true art form
was always a formidable advocate for racial equality, boycotting segregated venues in the United States and using her performances to highlight discrimination
maintained the Katherine dunham Dance Company for over 30 years & it was the only self-supported American Black dance troupe at the time
1921 a short story she wrote when 12, "Coming Back to Arizona" was published in volume 2 of The Brownies Handbook
played baseball, tennis, basketball & ran track, was VP of the French club & on the yearbook staff inhigh school
age 15 organized "The Blue Moon Cafe" a fundraiser for her church in Joliet, IL & performed in public for the 1st time
opened a dance school for young Black children while still in high school
never completed her coursework for her MA but did submit a thesis in 1938, leaving academia for the stage because she believed she could reach more people that way
toured on 6 countinents & to 38 with her dance company
1957 due to poor health spent 1 year basically in isolation in Kyoto Japan to write her memoirs
1964 was artist-in-residence at Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville Illinois
officially retired in 1967
1965 appointed by President Johnson as technical cultural advisor to Senegal & later established a home there
1949 she & 2nd husband John Pratt adopted a 14-month old daughter they named Marie-Christine in Paris
1977 the Katherine Dunham Museum & Children's Workshop opened in East Saint Lois
1993 the Government of Haiti awarded her citizenship