Dunham, Katherine

Dunham, Katherine (dŭn`əm), 1909?–2006, American dancer, choreographer, and anthropologist, b. Chicago. She studied anthropology at the Univ. of Chicago, where she received a B.A. and Ph.D. and began her research into dances of the Caribbean. In addition to teaching anthropology, from the late 1930s until the 1960s, she directed her own dance company, which toured the United States and worldwide. Her choreography combines Caribbean and African movements and rhythms with those of modern dance. In 1965, she accepted a position as adviser to the cultural ministry of Senegal. In 1967, she became director of the Performing Arts Training Center at the East St. Louis branch of Southern Illinois Univ., where she worked with inner-city youth groups.

Through her dance technique, which stressed the isolation of individual parts of the body, as well as her choreography, teaching, and appearances in different media, Dunham brought African and Caribbean dance to the attention of the public and exerted tremendous influence on the evolution of modern dance. She choreographed a number of dance revues including Bal Nègre (1946), Caribbean Rhapsody (1948), and Bamboche (1962). Dunham made her Broadway debut in the musical Cabin in the Sky (1940), choreographed and danced in several Hollywood musicals including Stormy Weather (1943), and also choreographed Aida (1963) at New York's Metropolitan Opera and The Magic of Katherine Dunham (1987) for the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater. Among her books are Journey to Accompong (1946), Island Possessed (1969), and Dances of Haiti (1984).

Bibliography

See her memoir, A Touch of Innocence (1959); biography by R. Beckford (1979); V. A. Clark and S. E. Johnson, ed., Kaiso!: Writings by and about Katherine Dunham (2006).

---

Dunham, Katherine

Katherine Dunham in Tropical Revue (1945–46).

(credit: Courtesy of the Dance Collection, New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations)

(born June 22, 1909, Glen Ellyn, Ill., U.S.—died May 21, 2006, New York, N.Y.) U.S. dancer, choreographer, and anthropologist noted for her interpretation of tribal and ethnic dances. In 1931 she opened a dance school in Chicago. In 1940 she formed the U.S.'s first all-black dance company, for which she choreographed revues based on her anthropological research in the Caribbean; her early works included Tropics and Le Jazz Hot. She later received a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Chicago. Many well-known black dancers were trained in her studios in Chicago and New York City. In the 1950s she toured in Europe with her company. She also choreographed Broadway stage productions, operas, and movies. Dunham was involved in human rights causes.

---

Dunham, Katherine (1912–  ) modern dancer, choreographer; born in Chicago, Ill. A University of Chicago graduate who went on to earn a doctorate in anthropology, she started her first school in Chicago (1931), later becoming dance director for the Works Progress Administration's Chicago theater project. A flamboyant performer, she is best known for her choreography in musicals like Cabin in the Sky (1940) and motion pictures, notably Stormy Weather (1943). She studied dance forms in the Caribbean, especially Haiti, where she lived for several years; she toured with her company during the 1940s, 1950s, and into the 1960s. In 1967 she founded a performing arts center for inner-city youths in East St. Louis, Ill. She went on a hunger strike in 1992 to protest the American deportation of Haitian refugees.