Katherine Dunham Interesting Facts . She was a pioneer of the African American ballet. Dancer, choreographer and dance teacher. She studied anthropology at the University of Chicago . He later founded a school of black dance that represented Negro Rhapsody (1931) for the Chicago Beaux Arts Ball.
Currently the American company Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble is one of the few that has maintained the legacy of this great woman. He was interested early, in the early 1940s, in the art of Cuban empirical percussionists and their involvement in choreographic work.
Katherine Dunham Interesting Facts.
Katherine Dunham was an influential dancer, choreographer, and anthropologist who made significant contributions to the world of dance and the study of African diaspora culture. Here are some interesting facts about her:
- Katherine Dunham was born on June 22, 1909, in Chicago, Illinois, and died on May 21, 2006, in New York City.
- Dunham was the daughter of an African American father and a French-Canadian mother.
- She began studying dance as a child and eventually went on to attend the University of Chicago, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in anthropology.
- Dunham became interested in the dance and culture of Haiti and spent several years living and studying there.
- In 1938, Dunham formed her own dance company, the Katherine Dunham Dance Company, which went on to tour the world and perform for audiences including royalty and heads of state.
- Dunham was a pioneer in blending African, Caribbean, and American dance styles, and her choreography is known for its use of African rhythms and movements.
- Dunham was also an advocate for civil rights and was active in the fight against racism and segregation.
- She was the first African American woman to choreograph a Broadway show, and she went on to work as a choreographer for several Hollywood films.
- Dunham was also an accomplished author and wrote several books on dance, anthropology, and African diaspora culture.
- In 1983, Dunham was awarded the Kennedy Center Honors for her contributions to American culture.
[ hide ]
- 1 Biographical synthesis
- 1 Professional career
- 2 Artistic career
- 3 Death
- 2 Distinctions
- 3 Sources
Biographical synthesis
He was born on June 22, 1910 in Glen Ellyn, Illinois , United States . At an early age she was influenced by choreographers and dance theorists such as Rudolf von Laban and Émile Jaques-Dalcroze, studied anthropology at the University of Chicago, where she was a student of Ludmila Speranzeva and Mark Turbyfill, and received a doctorate in Caribbean primitive dances. .
Career
The lectures, theories, and works of North American anthropologists Robert Redfield and Melville Herskovits were extraordinarily influential in unlocking the importance of the legacy of the African diaspora in understanding African-American culture . As a result of all his studies, in 1936 he obtained his degree in Social Anthropology from the University of Chicago.
Artistic career
He founded the black dance school that Black Rhapsody (1931) performed for the Chicago Beaux Arts Ball. As a dancer she made her debut at the Ravinia Park Festival with the choreography of Ruth Page La Guiablesse (1933), working until 1936 for the Chicago Opera Ballet.
In 1935 she won the Julius Rosenwald Foundation scholarship to further her studies of traditional indigenous dances in Haiti, Jamaica and Trinidad. Due to the experimental work in which he already combined dance and anthropology in the study of the African, he traveled to Cuba for the first time in 1936 and had his first meeting with Don Fernando Ortiz , thanks to the mediation of his teacher Melville Herskovits. Ortiz introduced Katherine Dunham to the mysteries of anthropological perception of Cuban religiosity, as well as introduced various artists and musicians who were also practitioners of Afro-Cuban religions and rites.
In 1938 he returned to Chicago in order to take over the direction of the Negro Unit of the Federal Theater Project, where he created his first work: L’Ag’ya (1938). He choreographed the musical Pins and Needles (1939) during the time he was in charge of the dance direction of the New York Labor Stage Project.
In 1940 he formed the first dance company in the United States where all its members were African American. For this company Dunham choreographed several magazines, based on his anthropological research that he carried out in the Caribbean .
He performed the choreography for the musical Cabin in the Sky (1940) and worked on the films Star Spangled Rhythm (1941), Carnival of Rhythm (1942), Stormy Weather (1943), Casbah (1948), Pardon my Sarong (1952), Botta e Risposta (1952) and Green Mansions (1959). He appeared with his company and that of Carmen Amaya in the film Música en la Noche (1957). In 1942 he performed in the films Pardon my sarong (1942) and, above all, Tropical review, until reaching the most commercial Carib song (1945) and Carnaval of rhythm. Her great religious-theatrical work was Shangó (1945) in which she was portrayed by Platt Lynes.
Between 1940 and 1960, the Katherine Dunham dance company traveled to more than sixty countries on six continents, always with a subliminal and powerful motto of the fight for equality and not forgetting. His style, close to Creole traditions and voices, sang to the tradition of the Mississippi River basin.
Death
He died on May 21, 2006, in New York, United States at the age of 96 due to various ailments from leukemia , and lung cancer.
