Katherine Dunham
An exceptional innovator and pioneer, Katherine Dunham revolutionized the dance world. Her blend of cultural anthropology with the artistic genre of dance in the early 1930's, produced groundbreaking forms of movement (known today as the Dunham technique), and established black dance as an art form in the United States. Katherine
She broke many barriers as a dancer, choreographer, actress, writer, and anthropologist. They would take Katherine to shows at local theaters, where she would see black vaudeville performers who could sing and dance. Her formal training in dance did not begin until her late teens. In 1935, she was awarded a fellowship to do field research in anthropology and dance. While at the university she began to study and research African culture. Dunham stayed with her two cousins who were actresses and lived in an apartment that was used for rehearsal space. Combining her two interest, she linked the function and form of Caribbean dance and ritual to their African heritage. Katherine Dunham was born June 22, 1909 near Chicago, Illinois. She began taking private lessons in college at the University of Chicago. Dunham became fascinated with the importance and the survival of African culture and ritual in understanding African American culture. This is where Dunhams love for the stage began. Her passion led her to the islands of Jamaica Trinidad, Cuba, Haiti, and Martinique. k companies such as Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and Dance Theater of Harlem. Her mother died shortly after and her father was a traveling salesman.
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