Villaescusa 1 Vivienne Villaescusa Dance History 461 Professor Brown and Professor Prohosky 8 April 2014 Katherine Dunham:

The Artist and The Activist

Of the billions of people whom have ever lived on earth, there are those who die with legacies and those who vanish unremembered. Katherine Dunham is a name within the dance community that is written in bold ink, which will not quickly fade from the pages of history. The impact she has had upon modern dance of her era, and contemporary dance of this current day, has kept her legacy alive, through the knowledge she was able to share through dance. Who was Katherine Dunham? She was an artist, choreographer, dancer and educator, and yet, she was much more than all those things. Katherine Dunham was a highly educated, intelligent woman, a figure who spread knowledge about African and Caribbean cultures to the United States and the rest of the world, an activist who spoke out for the voices of those not being heard in the dance world, the creator of Dunham technique and a dancer of courage. What made Katherine Dunham important? Before Dunhams impact upon the dance world, there was a void. The movement-voice of African American dancers was not prevalent in modern dance. Dunham filled a role of bringing African and Caribbean cultures into American dance and create[d] close to one hundred ballets and revues with the internationally-acclaimed Katherine Dunham Dance Company... between 1938 to 1965 (Osumare 3). One such ballet was aningo. aningo is described as, an all-male ballet [with] a fusion of balletic athleticism, Dunham technique (particularly rhythmic torso isolations and the use of the pelvis as the source for extending the legs), and a recontextualization of the movements of the Cuban male secret

Villaescusa 2 enclaves in Cuba that only initiated Abakua members could have previously viewed (Osumare 8). Dunham made ballet what it never was before, an experience to learn about and see movement from cultures around the world. Throughout Katherines life, Dunham was able to travel and study the cultures of different places around the world, Haiti and the Caribbean being two focuses. The question can be asked, though: What made Katherine Dunham different? After all, others anthropologist had studied these cultures before. What made Katherine Dunham different, and successful, was her dance background, As a dancer, she was able to enter into the dance ritual of the Rada Dahomey [Vodun dance found in Haiti (Fleurant 149)]; her involvement in this important cultural activity helped transform her into an insider (Aschenbrenner 51). Because Katherine was involved in witnessing and participating in dances of these communities, which were of great importance to those societies, she was allowed a closer perspective and more privileged insight than other anthropologists. Because of this strong bond to dance, Katherine was able to unlock a vast amount of knowledge regarding Afro-Caribbean cultures and bring it back to the United States. However, bringing African and Caribbean dance culture back to America was not simple or even necessarily wanted at first. The dance that Katherine brought back from her travels was viewed as strange, even for those who had roots in its origins; Black parents didnt want to send their daughters [to Katherines] dance school because they thought the name, Negro Dance Group, meant their daughters would be taught ancestral African dancing. What they wanted the girls to learn was ballet for grace and prestige, and the kind of social dancing that would prepare them for the parties and balls of their day(Harnan 51). Katherine was a blend of both worlds, however and show[ed] that there was a sound black dance tradition, deserving the same respect

Villaescusa 3 as the white European tradition then dominating the dance stage ( Harnan 52). However, Katherine persisted with exploring the new things she discovered and courageously continued. Dunhams goal was to find and articulate the fundamental nature of African-derived dances remaining in the Americas. [Her] intentions [were] to rediscover and re-envision that which is truly Negro, or African, in the Americas (Osumare 2). Dunhams dance work was not just an exotic entertainment to dazzle an audience and fill an evening. Katherine was a woman who loved learning and so she brought that into her artistic work. She was a combination of smart, hard working, and artistic, which, I believe, is one of the key reasons she became a historical figure. Katherine Dunham was humorously described as an extraordinarily competent brain topping a sinuous and athletic body ( *Unknown author*). She has also been depicted as a prolific writer and published quite a few memoirs about her fieldwork (Osumare 3). Dunhams college career started as a student at the University of Chicago and she obtained a bachelors in philosophy while studying anthropology (Aschenbrenner 19). It was upon studying anthropology that she began to connect to the dance of other cultures. ...She found [dance] played an important part in the origins and customs of mankind (Biemiller 75). Her brilliance in the academic world, and talent in the dance world, were able to join two different parts of society together that were lacking communication. By joining these two worlds together she gained prominence in both. Katherine also displayed her intelligence in her experience as a choreographer. Her intellectual openness an essential aspect of her personality, gave her the qualities of sympathetic observer, but it was her choreographers eye and dancers memory that rendered her a peerless recorder of human cultural and social life (Aschenbrenner 57). Dunham was able to take rituals, or events of a society, and translate them into dance. It was said that, Dunhams

Villaescusa 4 choreographic method and her published ethnographies reveal an erudite artist-scholar who was very aware that she was breaking new groundwork (Osumare 1). Katherine also realized that many choreographers and teachers planned their choreography without considering the talents or abilities of the dancers. This was not a philosophy in which she agreed. To Katherine, the way to plan a dance was to consider the dancers themselves, choosing steps to fit their particular talents (Biemiller 78). Dunham carefully constructed her choreography to make the choreography natural for the dancer. However, because her choreography was often about sensitive or political topics, Dunham demanded a great deal from her cast emotionally (Bowie and Soriano 46-47). She did not shy away from topics that could be offensive or bring up greater moral questions, instead she courageously took on these topics and used them as inspiration to better inform the world. What is Dunham Technique? [Dunham] turned her anthropological work into material for developing pedagogy she called Dunham technique... A primary goal of her pedagogy was to cultivate positive self-esteem, intercultural understanding, community harmony, and link Black people and others to an African dignity and a spiritually enriching education (Banks 159). As previously described from the movement used in her choreography of aningo, the movement often included the use of the pelvis as well as rhythmic torso isolations (Osumare 8). Dunham technique related a social and cultural connection to dance, differing from other technique styles, In the Dunham dance technique, the student learns that the actual movements and body orientation of a particular dance directly relates to the function of that dance in the social sphere (Osumare 4). As Katherine studied more about the relationships of different cultures and their social interactions, Dunham dance technique grew directly from her fieldwork by applying anthropological theory to the dance itself (Osumare 4). Dunham technique was more

Villaescusa 5 than just a vocabulary of movement because it was based around what inspired societies to dance and how their bodies reacted. Dunham believed that dance should be an extension of your courage (Banks 159). Before Katherine had been further able to study anthropology, traveling abroad to do fieldwork, she displayed her own courage when approaching the board at the University of Chicago, to prove that research about the origins of African and Caribbean dance in America was missing and greatly needed. An example of her own courage is described in her presentation before the committee when applying for a grant: Gracefully Katherine pirouetted before them, did an arabesque and acted a lovesick swan. She straightened up and said, That is the kind of dancing being taught in Chicago. Then she threw her body into a wild African tribal war dance. She told the board, That is the way people dance in other places. I want to go where they dance like that. I want to find out why, how it started, and what influence it had on the people. I want to learn something that will help me teach people about the Negro. (Harnan 55). Katherine did exactly what she set out to do, she learned about the Afro-Caribbean roots of Black Americans and spread the knowledge she found. She greater educated America, and the world, about the lives of Black Americans through different cultures of the world in the form of dance dance. For example, [Dunham] used dance anthropology to address dilemmas of racism facing Black Americans in the United States (Banks 159). She brought her audience face to face with racial violence and lynching in the United States(Bowie and Soriano 46). Not matter what society Katherine was studying, and basing her choreography upon, she transposed her empathetic responses into a public call to action through her art (Bowie and Soriano

Villaescusa 6 46). Katherine develop[ed] a dance education for correcting sociocultural injustices (Banks 159). Dunham displayed her own courage in her choreography and work as an activist for human rights. In conclusion, Katherine Dunham was revolutionary. She was more than just dancer, she was courageous. Katherine Dunham enlightened America, and the rest of the world about African and Caribbean cultures, through dance. She was an activist for black Americans as well as an extremely intelligent anthropologist, writer and choreographer. She discovered the marriage of two fields--dance and anthropology-- and was able to connect the two, to show the legitimacy of Black dance in America. Dunhams curiosity for other cultures, and courage in educating the world, in regards to what she found, has made her a historical icon and an artist and activist not quickly forgotten.

Villaescusa 7 Work Cited: Aschenbrenner, Joyce. Katherine Dunham: Dancing a Life. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2002. Print. Banks, Ojey Cruz. "Katherine Dunham: Decolonizing Anthropology THrough African American Dance Pedagogy." Transforming Anthropology: Journal of the Association of Black Anthropologists. 20.2 (2012): n. page. Print. Biemiller, Ruth. Dance: The Story of Katherine Dunham. 1st edition. Garden City: Doubleday & Company, Inc, 1969. Print. Bowie, Rian . "Poetic Steps: Fusing African American Poetry and Choreography in Classroom Practice."Journal of Dance Education. 11.2 n. page. Print. <2011>. Fleurant , Gerds. Dancing Spirits: Rhythms and Rituals of Haitian Vodun, the Rada Rite. Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc, 1996. Print. Harnan, Terry. African Rhythm American Dance: A Biography of Katherine Dunham . New York: 1974. Print. Osumare, Halifu. "Dancing the Black Atlantic: Katherine Dunhams Research-to-Performance Method."AmericQuests. 7.2 n. page. Web. 9 Apr. 2014. <http://ejournals.library.vanderbilt.edu/ojs/index.php/ameriquests/article/view/165/182>. Unknown Author. Katherine Dunham. MD 1785.D87 H87 1943. Print.