Katherine Dunham

Katherine Dunham (born 24 June 1909) in Chicago, Illinois, USA is a dancer, choreographer, songwriter who was trained as an anthropologist. Known for her many innovations, the Dunham Technique is now taught as a modern dance style in dance schools, including at the Harkness Dance Center of the 92nd Street Y.

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24 June - 1909 - Chicago - Illinois - USA - Dancer - Choreographer - Songwriter - Anthropologist - Dunham Technique - Harkness Dance Center - 92nd Street Y

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Dunham studied both dance and anthropology while an undergraduate and graduate student at the University of Chicago during the 1930s. She showed great promise in her ethnographic studies of dance and studied under the great anthropologists of the day, Robert Redfield, A.R. Radcliffe-Brown, Edward Sapir, and Bronislaw Malinowski. In 1936, she was awarded a Rosenwald Travel Fellowship to conduct ethnographic study of the Vodun in the West Indies, a path also followed by fellow anthropology student, Zora Neale Hurston http://www.tbwt.org/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=180&Itemid=30. While working on her masters, she was told by her advisors that she had to choose between anthropology and dance. Much to their regret, she chose dance, left her graduate studies before finishing her doctorate, and departed for Hollywood, where she made a number of films before forming her own company.

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University of Chicago - 1930s - Robert Redfield - A.R. Radcliffe-Brown - Edward Sapir - Bronislaw Malinowski - Vodun - Zora Neale Hurston - Hollywood

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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.

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Katherine Dunham Company - Modern dance

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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.

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Katherine Dunham School of Dance - New York City - Southern Illinois University - Haitian - Caribbean

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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.

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1967 - Performing Arts Training Center - East St. Louis, Illinois

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In 1989, Dunham was awarded a National Medal of Arts, an honor shared by only two other University of Chicago alumni, Saul Bellow and Philip Roth.

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Saul Bellow - Philip Roth

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Dunham was married to producer John Thomas Pratt.

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