Katherine Dunham a Significant Figure to 'Black Dance'

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Acknowledgement

I would take this opportunity to thank my research supervisor, family and friends for their support and guidance without which this research would not have been possible.

DECLARATION

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Contents

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION5

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW10

A Life in Summary10

As a Cheerful Dancer13

Early Life of Katherine Dunham15

Dance Interest of Katherine Dunham15

Dance Career of Katherine Dunham16

Carribbean Influence of Katherine Dunham16

Katherine Dunham Dance Company16

Anthropology17

Legacy19

Global Activist24

Film Career26

Educator and Writer28

Politics30

Hunger Strike32

Botanical Garden in Haiti32

Kaiso! Writings By and About Katherine Dunham34

Katherine Dunham's Haiti37

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY40

Research Design40

Literature Search40

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND FINDINGS41

Death42

Awards43

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION45

REFERENCES46

Chapter 1: Introduction

Katherine Dunham has been called the "Matriarch of very dark dance." Her unprecedented combine of cultural anthropology with the creative genre of dance in the early 1930's, produced groundbreaking types of movement, and in the United States, established very dark dance as an art pattern in its own right Her professional troupe, formed in the early 1940's, was a first for African Americans, and directed the way for future notables of dance the likes of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, and Arthur Mitchell's Dance Theatre of Harlem.

Born June 22, 1909, in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, beside Chicago, Dunham relished the security of a middle-class suburban reality for the first four years of her life. Her dad, Albert Millard Dunham, was a tailor who had his own business in Chicago. Her mother, Fanny June Guillaume Taylor, who was 20 years older than her husband, was an assistant primary at a town school. Dunham's life altered drastically though, in 1914, when her mother became seriously sick and past away, leaving Albert to lift Katherine and her older male sibling, Albert Jr, alone. Eventually, economic obligations compelled Katherine's dad to deal the family's dwelling, forfeit his business, and accept a job as a traveling salesman.

Over the next couple of years, Katherine and Albert Jr, stayed with their auntie Lulu Dunham and diverse relations in sections of Chicago. They stayed first with kin Clara Dunham and her 17-year-old daughter. Both were actresses, and dwelled in an luxury suite that was furthermore utilised as a rehearsal space for a very dark vaudeville display, which they were producing. Later, they moved in with another kin, who took Katherine to displays at the localized theaters, where she very satisfied in the performances of singers like Bessie Smith, and dancers like the group, Cole and Johnson. These knowledge provided Katherine a flavour of the amusement world that she would arrive to love.

When Albert Sr., came to assemble his children, he conveyed with him a new wife; a schoolteacher entitled Annette Poindexter, who Katherine subsequent described as being, "fiercely loyal," to the Dunham children. In fact, it was an act of wrath (one of ...