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Katherine Dunham - A Living Legacy
Katherine Dunham
Katherine Dunham
Red Line

by Bob Moore, SLFP
© 1999, Saint Louis Front Page

EAST ST. LOUIS (June 14) - At age ninety, Katherine Dunham is still actively working to keep young people inspired through music, art and especially dancing. At the young age of eight, she performed her first dance concert as a way of raising funds for the local Methodist church in Joliet, Illinois. Today, she is focused on raising several million to ensure the future of the Katherine Dunham Museum, the Dunham African Artisanal Village and the Dunham Children's Workshop performance arts facility.

Katherine Dunham An entire week will be spent to honored Dunham on her birthday, beginning with a traditional village baptismal ceremony of the village. Her legacy as a dancer, poet, painter, choreographer and activist spans many decades.

She was born in Chicago, of a French-Canadian mother and an American father who traced his ancestry back to slave ships from Madagascar. While attending the Chicago University, she supplemented her income by holding ballet dance classes. An ethnological lecture inspired her to seek her cultural heritage through the African dances of the Caribbean islands. With the aid of a Rosenwald fellowship for research, she spent a year studying in the islands and wrote a book, The Dances of Haiti, on her experiences.

Dunham founded the Dunham Company in the 1930s and began working with gifted students using the 'Dunham Technique'. Her company worked in numerous Hollywood productions including "Star Spangled Rhythm", "Stormy Weather" and "Carnival of Rhythm". She created the role of Georgia Brown for the Broadway production of "Cabin in the Sky".

Katherine Dunham
Katherine Dunham et ses danseure dan le film 'Stormy Weather'
(Twentieth Century Fox).
Red Line
She took her original concert dance program throughout the United States during World War II and later played to audiences in Europe, South America, West Indies, Australia and the Far East. The production featured beautiful scenery and costumes designed by her late husband, John Pratt. In the late 1950s, she wrote "Touch of Innocence", based on a trip to St. Louis. She also began a new dance research. A tour in the early 1960s traced her first European route. The production of "Bamboche!" followed an expedition to Africa. In 1979, she was honored with the 1979 Albert Schweitzer Music Award at Carnegie Hall.

Her artist achievements touched more than the theatrical world. It is notable that Brazil passed a national law against discrimination in places of public accommodation as an attempt to atone for a racial slight to Dunham at a hotel in Rio. Today, the Dunham Technique is still taught by former members of the company. The technique has inspired numerous theatrical dancing productions in television and the movies. And her vision continues to live on in young people who are learning about their heritage through the arts.

Katherine Dunham
Katherine Dunham Museum
Red Line
During the special activities planned for Katherine Dunham, she will be saluted by the metropolitan St. Louis community. A celebration on June 23, Dunham's birthday, at the museum features a performance by the Young Lions, on June 24, at the Grand Marais Country Club in the Frank Holten State Park. On June 25, a literary tribute will be presented by the Eugene B. Redmond Writers Club at 6 p.m. in the City Council Chambers at the East St. Louis Municipal Building.

Autographed copies of Katherine Dunham's memoir, "A Touch of Innocence", will also be available for $25 during the birthday celebration.

Information for this article gathered from "Katherine Dunham, Her Dancers, Singers, Musicians" by Richard Buckle and from the program "Katherine Dunham in "Bamboche!".


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