Autobiography of katherine dunham

Marlon Brando frequently dropped in to play the bongo drums, and jazz musician Charles Mingus held regular jam sessions with the drummers. Known for her many innovations, Dunham developed a dance pedagogy, later named the Dunham Technique, a style of movement and exercises based in traditional African dances, to support her choreography.

This won international acclaim and is now taught as a modern dance style in many dance schools. ByDunham was under severe personal strain, which was affecting her health. She decided to live for a year in relative isolation in Kyoto, Japanwhere she worked on writing memoirs of her youth. A continuation based on her experiences in HaitiIsland Possessedwas published in A fictional work based on her African experiences, Kasamance: A Fantasywas published in Throughout her career, Dunham occasionally published articles about her anthropological research sometimes under the pseudonym of Kaye Dunn and sometimes lectured on anthropological topics at universities and scholarly societies.

The Met Ballet Company dancers studied Dunham Technique at Dunham's 42nd Street dance studio for the entire summer leading up to the season opening of Aida. Lyndon B. Johnson was in the audience for opening night. Dunham's background as an anthropologist gave the dances of the opera a new authenticity. She was also consulted on costuming for the Egyptian and Ethiopian dress.

InDunham settled in East St. Louisand took up the post of artist-in-residence at Southern Illinois University in nearby Edwardsville. There she was able to bring anthropologists, sociologists, educational specialists, scientists, writers, musicians, and theater people together to create a liberal arts curriculum that would be a foundation for further college work.

One of her fellow professors, with whom she collaborated, was architect Buckminster Fuller. The following year,President Lyndon B. Johnson nominated Dunham to be technical cultural adviser—a sort of cultural ambassador—to the government of Senegal in West Africa. Later Dunham established a second home in Senegal, and she occasionally returned there to autobiography of katherine dunham for talented African musicians and dancers.

Louis in an effort to use the arts to combat poverty and urban unrest. The restructuring of heavy industry had caused the loss of many working-class jobs, and unemployment was high in the city. After the riots following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. The PATC teaching staff was made up of former members of Dunham's touring company, as well as local residents.

While trying to help the young people in the community, Dunham was arrested. This gained international headlines and the embarrassed local police officials quickly released her. She also continued refining and teaching the Dunham Technique to transmit that knowledge to succeeding generations of dance students. She lectured every summer until her death at annual Masters' Seminars in St.

Louis, which attracted dance students from around the world. Louis to preserve Haitian and African instruments and artifacts from her personal collection. InDunham was guest artist-in-residence and lecturer for Afro-American studies at the University of California, Berkeley. A photographic exhibit honoring her achievements, entitled Kaiso!

Katherine Dunham, was mounted at the Women's Center on the campus. Inan anthology of writings by and about her, also entitled Kaiso! Katherine Dunhamwas published in a limited, numbered edition of copies by the Institute for the Study of Social Change. Dunham technique is a codified dance training technique developed by Katherine Dunham in the mid 20th century.

Commonly grouped into the realm of modern dance techniques, Dunham is a technical dance form developed from elements of indigenous African and Afro-Caribbean dances. Using some ballet vernacular, Dunham incorporates these principles into a set of class exercises she labeled as "processions". Each procession builds on the last and focuses on conditioning the body to prepare for specific exercises that come later.

Video footage of Dunham technique classes show a strong emphasis on anatomical alignment, breath, and fluidity. Dancers are frequently instructed to place weight on the balls of their feet, lengthen their lumbar and cervical spines, and breathe from the abdomen and not the chest. There is also a strong emphasis on training dancers in the practices of engaging with polyrhythms by simultaneously moving their upper and lower bodies according to different rhythmic patterns.

Autobiography of katherine dunham: Katherine Mary Dunham (June

These exercises prepare the dancers for African social and spiritual dances [ 31 ] that are practiced later in the class including the Mahi, [ 32 ] Yonvalou, [ 33 ] and Congo Paillette. According to Dunham, the development of her technique came out of a need for specialized dancers to support her choreographic visions and a greater yearning for technique that "said the things that [she] wanted to say.

Many of Dunham students who attended free public classes in East St. Louis Illinois speak highly about the influence of her open technique classes and artistic presence in the city. Dunham technique is also inviting to the influence of cultural movement languages outside of dance including karate and capoeira. The Katherine Dunham Company toured throughout North America in the mids, performing as well in the racially segregated South.

Dunham 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. On another occasion, in Octoberafter getting a rousing standing ovation in Louisville, Kentuckyshe 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.

In Hollywood, Dunham refused to sign a lucrative studio contract when the producer said she would have to replace some of her darker-skinned company members.

Autobiography of katherine dunham: Legendary dancer, choreographer and

She and her company frequently had difficulties finding adequate accommodations while on tour because in many regions of the country, black Americans were not allowed to stay at hotels. While Dunham was recognized as "unofficially" representing American cultural life in her foreign autobiographies of katherine dunham, she was given very little assistance of any kind by the U.

State Department. She had incurred the displeasure of departmental officials when her company performed Southlanda ballet that dramatized the lynching of a black man in the racist American South. Its premiere performance on December 9,at the Teatro Municipal in Santiago, Chile[ 39 ] [ 40 ] generated considerable public interest in the early months of As a result, Dunham would later experience some diplomatic "difficulties" on her tours.

The State Department regularly subsidized other less well-known groups, but it consistently refused to support her company even when it was entertaining U. Army troopsalthough at the same time it did not hesitate to take credit for them as "unofficial artistic and cultural representatives". Understanding that the fact was due to racial discrimination, she made sure the incident was publicized.

The incident was widely discussed in the Brazilian press and became a hot political issue. In response, the Afonso Arinos law was passed in that made racial discrimination in public places a felony in Brazil. Inat age 83, Dunham went on a highly publicized hunger strike to protest the discriminatory U. Time reported that, "she went on a day hunger strike to protest the U.

This initiative drew international publicity to the plight of the Haitian boat-people and U. Dunham ended her fast only after exiled Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide and Jesse Jackson came to her and personally requested that she stop risking her life for this cause. In recognition of her stance, President Aristide later awarded her a medal of Haiti's highest honor.

Dunham married Jordis McCoo, a black postal worker, inbut he did not share her interests and they gradually drifted apart, finally divorcing in About that time Dunham met and began to work with John Thomas Pratt, a Canadian who had become one of America's most renowned costume and theatrical set designers. Pratt, who was white, shared Dunham's interests in African-Caribbean cultures and was happy to put his talents in her service.

After he became her artistic collaborator, they became romantically involved. In the summer ofafter the national tour of Cabin in the Sky ended, they went to Mexico, where inter-racial marriages were less controversial than in the United States, and engaged in a commitment ceremony on 20 July, which thereafter they gave as the date of their wedding.

From the beginning of their association, aroundPratt designed the sets and every costume Dunham ever wore. He continued as her artistic collaborator until his death in When she was not performing, Dunham and Pratt often visited Haiti for extended stays. On one of these visits, during the late s, she purchased a large property of more than seven hectares approximately Dunham used Habitation Leclerc as a private retreat for many years, frequently bringing members of her dance company to recuperate from the stress of touring and to work on developing new dance productions.

After running it as a tourist spot, with Vodun dancing as entertainment, in the early s, she sold it to a French entrepreneur in the early s. They had never been exposed to anything so culturally different, and with such a power of total involvement. It was much more than the enthusiastic reaction to a brilliant theatrical experience. It was an exposure to a different culture, and to a sense of magic and of beauty they knew nothing about.

Autobiography of katherine dunham: American dancer and choreographer

In Katherine Dunham and her company appeared in Bamboche, the three-act revue that first introduced to America the dancers of Morocco, who appeared with the consent of King Hassan II. Dunham choreographed Aida in at the Met, and continued to secure her place in artistic history by becoming the first African American to choreograph for the Metropolitan Opera.

She also made several recordings for the Decca label of songs that were in the show. The last time the Dunham Company performed was in at the Apollo theatre. During her touring years, there were also articles and short stories to her credit. While there she directed a production of Faust and established a dance anthropology program at SIU in Edwardsville.

Autobiography of katherine dunham: This book is Dunham's

Louis, Illinois. She used her talent and insight to re-direct the energy of violent street gangs through the performing arts. Louis Metropolitan region. Always ahead of her time, Dunham attacked Modern Dance's "freedom of movement" style as a sham, noting that without purpose to dance, performers bring little but technique to the stage. Dunham's early lack of acceptance in the African-American community was more complex.

While she worked to put soul and pride of origin into her choreography, others sought to abandon their historical roots and heritage by assimilating to the majority culture. She has long since come into her own, and the world followed. We can best honor the woman who left Joliet to become a citizen of the world by investing time to learn "why we dance.

Hope Rajala was a long-time member of the Will County History Society, for which she contributed numerous articles to its Quarterly Publication. This article was prepared for that publication prior to her death on November 22, Louis Honored by Kennedy Center for Performing Arts for a Lifetime of Achievement Awarded Samuel Scripps Prize, which honors dancers and choreographers who have made modern dance in American a universally recognized art form.

Photo courtesy Illinois State Historical Library Dunham's mother, who was twenty years older than her husband, died when Katherine was about four years old. She also made several recordings for the Decca label of songs that were in the autobiography of katherine dunham. The last time the Dunham Company performed was in at the Apollo theatre. During her touring years, there were also articles and short stories to her credit.

While there she directed a production of Faust and established a dance anthropology program at SIU in Edwardsville. Louis, Illinois. She used her talent and insight to re-direct the energy of violent street gangs through the performing arts. Louis Metropolitan region. It is the only multi-disciplinary arts organization devoted to the study, appreciation, and celebration of diverse cultures.

Katherine Dunham was always a formidable advocate for racial equality, refusing to perform at segregated venues in the United States and using her performances to highlight discrimination. She was also politically active on both domestic and international rights issues and made national and international headlines by staging a hunger strike of 47 days in at the age of 82, to protest the U.

By that time, she was considered a living, breathing, historical institution in and of herself. Throughout her distinguished career, Katherine Dunham earned numerous honorary doctorates, awards, and honors. The living Dunham tradition has persisted.