Decolonozing Anthropology: Katherine "the Great" Dunham
Katherine Dunham created a discourse to confront racism against black bodies and stories with formal ethnographies and dance.
Katherine Mary Dunham was an anthropologist, dancer, choreographer, writer and activist. She was born on June 22nd, 1909. In her memoir, A Touch of Innocence, she describes her childhood through WW1 and the influenza pandemic as glance into a world that will never exist again. It is this appreciation for the present and her precision with prose that led her to her career. In 1928, she arrived at the University of Chicago, already a published author, and began her career as a teacher. She eventually switched careers and received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Anthropology.
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As a graduate student at the University of Chicago, she wrote several ethnographies on the structure and form of dance in “primitive” black cultures in the Caribbean and West Indies (Dunham, 1959, 1994; Dunham, Clark, & Johnson, 2005). She was heavily influenced by E.B Tyler, Bronislaw Malinowski, and Alfred Radcliffe Brown.
After publishing her masters thesis, she then used her writings to critique the influence of black cultures on American dance styles and purposefully incorporated forms she observed into her artistic work.
Photo provided by Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Morris Library Special Collections Research Center.
She is credited with inventing the Dunham technique, which is the use of opposite action on the joints as well as posterior movements in the spine and pelvis when using formal ballet technique (Dunham, 1954). She became the first black women to lead a broadway musical in Cabin in the Sky. At this time, she was already a well respected dancer and choreographer. She started the Dunham Dance Company and the Dunham School for Arts and Research. In its prime, the school had seen students such as James Dean and Marlon Brando.
Subject: Katherine Dunham. Provided by the New York Times
A Short Danceography: Katherine Dunham
Throughout her career, she promoted the inclusion of dance forms from other cultures. She promoted integration in theaters and in her casts. She is one of the first choreographers to hire an all black cast and refused to change her choreography to fit the expectations of a white audience. With her choreography, she was heavily critical of American and European dances included forms stolen from Black cultures but only used black actors or dancers as props on stage or as depictions of slaves. Her performances were the first to give autonomy to Black artists in the United States.
Katherine Dunham on Overcoming 1940s Racism │Jacob's Pillow Dance
If you want to learn more about Katherine Dunham and her contribution to both anthropology and dance, I recommend the following documentary and article. Many of her performances, as you saw above, are recorded and still relevant for modern dancers today.
Free to Dance Episode 2: "Steps of the Gods" (part 1)