Katherine Dunham Joins the Ancestors at 96
Promoter/Scholar in African-Caribbean Dance
© Kwame Brathwaite
Continued from home page
Born in Joliet, Illinois, Dunham was one of the first African Americans to attend the University of Chicago. She went on to earn her bachelors, masters and doctoral degree in anthropology. She
studied with Ludmilla Speranzeva and Mark Turbyfill, and danced her first leading role in Ruth Page's ballet "La Guiablesse" in 1933. She attended the University of Chicago on scholarship (B.A., Social Anthropology, 1936), where she was inspired by the work of
anthropologists Robert Redfield and Melville Herskovits, who stressed the importance of the survival of African culture and ritual in understanding African-American culture. While in college she taught youngsters' dance classes and gave recitals in a Chicago
storefront, calling her student company, founded in 1931, "Ballet Negre." Awarded a Rosenwald Travel Fellowship in 1936 for her combined expertise in dance and anthropology, she departed after graduation for the West Indies (Jamaica, Trinidad, Cuba, Haiti,
Martinique) to do field research in anthropology and dance. Combining her two interests, she linked the function and form of Caribbean dance and ritual to their African progenitors.
The West Indian experience changed forever the focus of Dunham's life (eventually she would live in Haiti half of the time and become a priestess in the "vodoun" religion), and caused a profound shift in her career. This initial fieldwork provided
the nucleus for future researches and began a lifelong involvement with the people and dance of Haiti. From this Dunham generated her master's thesis (Northwestern University, 1947) and more fieldwork. She lectured widely, published numerous articles, and wrote
three books about her observations: Journey to Accompong(1946), The Dances of Haiti (her master's thesis, published in 1947), and Island Possessed (1969), underscoring how African religions and rituals adapted to the New World.
Miss Dunham established her first dance school in Chicago, in 1931, and went on to achieve one of the most successful dance careers in the American and European theater in 1934. This led to leading roles in the theatre including musicals, operas
and cabarets throughout the world. She moved to New York and opened a dance school and touring company, that helped create and influence dancers and choreographers that would become world renown, including Syvilla Forte, Walter Nix, Louis Johnson, and Alvin Ailey.
In the 1940’s the Katherine Dunham Troupe won critical acclaim worldwide while performing more than 100 original works choreographed by Miss Dunham. The Dunham technique is one of the most important pedagogues for teaching dance and is still used throughout the
world.
Dunham received a Rosenwald Fellowship in 1936, which helped her accomplish groundbreaking research on Caribbean and Brazilian dance anthropology as a new academic discipline
Miss Dunham married one of America’s most highly regarded theatrical designers, Mr. John Pratt, which created a powerful creative team that lasted until his death in the 1960’s. Throughout her life, she brought public attention to social
injustices in the United States and abroad. As late as 1993, she took on a 47-day hunger strike in the interest of changing the U..S. relations with Haiti, a hunger strike at the age of 82. Which helped to return Jean Bertrand Aristide, Haiti’s first duly-elected
president to power..
She joined the faculty or Southern Illinois University in 1967, and helped create a performing arts training center and established a dance anthropology program. In 1969, Miss Dunham created a community-based arts education program in East St.
Louis, called the Katherine Dunham Centers for the Arts and Humanities, which is still very active today, providing residents of the Metro East community with an opportunity to witness and participate in all of the fine, performing and cultural arts. These
centers remain the St. Louis Metropolitan region’s only multi-disciplinary arts organizations devoted to the study, appreciation and celebration of diverse cultures.
Miss Dunham has earned many coveted awards over the years, including the Presidential Medal of Arts, the Kennedy Center Honors, French Legion of Honor, Southern Cross of Brazil, Grand Cross of Haiti, NAACP Lifetime Achievement Award, Lincoln Academy
Laureate, and the Urban Leagues’ Lifetime Achievement Award. Miss Dunham was one of 75 women whose lives were celebrated in the book, I Have A Dream.
Miss Dunham has been cared for in her later years by devoted friends Harry and Julie Belefonte in New York until her failing health, had to be moved to an assisted living residence.
Tributes poured in after the news of her death. The great dancer, Judith Jamison,
choreographer and now Artistic Director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre said: “Katherine Dunham stood in a class by herself. She made it easier for dancers of color to realize the
possibilities of being on stage; being visible; showcasing our theatricality, creativity and beauty as well as celebrating the Diaspora. Mr. Ailey was in total awe of her accomplishments and her contributions to make our dance lives possible. She influenced him
so greatly that he dedicated an entire New York season and tour to her work. Ms. Dunham was beautiful, dynamic and an intellectual. As long as there are young people of color on stage, her impact and name will not be forgotten. Because of her transition, now
she is a part of the universe- as always”. Nana Camille Yarbrough, former Dunham dancer, and instructor in the Dunham Technique remarks:
“Katherine Dunham changed the image of, and respect for, Diasporic African people here in North America and internationally. For her audiences wherever she toured, with her stage presentations she erased the images of the "darky", the "coon", the
"ignorant bafoon". She replaced them with images and attitudes, rhythms, styles, humor and songs all of which had the antiquity and dignity of traditional African Culture. She changed us, and the world, for the better. Miss Dunham did her work. Following her
example, let us do ours.
It was my honor to have been a member of the Katherine Dunham Company of Dancers, Singers and Musicians for five years and to have taught The Dunham Technique.
Family forever”
