Katherine Dunham (born 24 June 1909) in Chicago, Illinois, USA is a dancer, choreographer, songwriter and anthropologist known for her many innovations. Dunham Technique is now taught as a modern dance style in dance schools, including at the Harkness Dance Center of the 92nd Street Y.
The Katherine Dunham Company , a troupe of dancers, singers, actors and musicians, was the first African American modern dance company. The company toured worldwide and in the then segregated South, where Ms. Dunham once refused to hold a show after finding out that the city’s black residents had not been allowed to buy tickets for the performance.
Dunham later directed the Katherine Dunham School of Dance in New York City and was an artist-in-residence at Southern Illinois University. Dunham is also known for her anthropological work in studies into Haitian and Caribbean culture. She was educated in anthropology at the University of Chicago.
In 1967, Dunham opened the Performing Arts Training Center (PATC) in East St. Louis, Illinois as an attempt to use the arts to combat poverty and urban unrest. The PATC drew on former members of Dunham's touring company as well as local residents for its teaching staff.
Dunham was married to producer John Thomas Pratt.
Further reading
- Constance Valis Hill , "Katherine Dunham's 'Southland': Protest in the Face of Repression," in Dancing Many Drums: Excavations in African American Dance, ed. Thomas F. DeFrantz (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press , 2002).
- James Haskins , Katherine Dunham (New York: Coward, McCann, & Geoghegan, 1982).
External links
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