+respect
katherine dunham. timeline
dancer. activist. teacher
+images courtesy of
the library of congress
"It makes me very happy to know that you have liked us . . .but tonight our hearts are very sad because this is a farewell to Louisville. . . . I have discovered that your management will not allow people like you to sit next to people like us. I hope that time and the unhappiness of this war for tolerance and democracy . . . will change some of these things. Perhaps then we can return."
Katherine Dunham 1944
1909
Katherine Mary Dunham is born on June 22nd in Chicago, Illinois to a black father and a mother of French-Canadian and American Indian heritage. The family moves to Glen Ellyn, Illinois where Dunham is raised
1913
Dunham’s mother dies and Katherine and her brother are sent to live with an aunt on the South Side of Chicago
1915
Albert Sr. marries Annette Poindexter, and the children go to live with their father and stepmother in Joliet, Illinois.
1921
At the age of 12, Dunham publishes her first short-story, Come Back to Arizona, in The Brownies’ Book, a periodical edited by W.E.B. DuBois
1922
Dunham begins studying a kind of free-style modern dance based on the ideas of choreographers Jaques-Dalcroze and Rudolf von Laban.
To help raise money for her church, Dunham organizes a cabaret party in which she serves as the producer, director and primary star.
1928
In Chicago, Dunham begins to study ballet with Ludmilla Speranzeva, one of the first ballet teachers to accept black dancers as students. Speranzeva introduces Dunham to the Spanish dancers La Argentina, Quill Monroe, and Vicente Escudero.
Dunham also studies ballet with Mark Turbyfill and Ruth Page and, through Vera Mirova, is exposed to East Indian, Javanese, and Balinese dance forms.
1929
Dunham begins studying at the University of Chicago. After developing an interest in the origins of Black American culture, she decides to major in anthropology and to focus on dances of the African Diaspora.
1930
Katherine Dunham forms a dance company, Ballet Nègre, one of the first Negro ballet companies in America.
1931
Ballet Nègre gives its debut performance at the annual Beaux Arts Ball in Chicago. No engagements follow, and the group disbands.
1933
Dunham opens her first dance school, the Negro Dance Group, in Chicago.
1934
In a Chicago Opera production, Dunham dances the leading role in La Guiablesse (The Devil Woman), Ruth Page’s all-black cast ballet based on a Martinican legend.
Dunham revives her company, Ballet Nègre, with students from her school, the Negro Dance Group. The company appears at the Chicago World's Fair.
1935
Dunham receives a grant from the Julius Rosenwald Fund to study the dances of the West Indies. She leaves for Jamaica, Haiti, Martinique, Trinidad and other points in the Caribbean.
1937
As part of the suite called Primitive Rhythms, Dunham premieres Rara Tonga at the Goodman Theater in Chicago. It will subsequently be performed as an independent work.
Dunham and her dancers premiere Tropics at the Abraham Lincoln Center in Chicago. The suite of dances includes the soon to be popular piece Woman with a Cigar.
1938
Dunham choreographs and produces her first full-length ballet, L'Ag'Ya, in Chicago.
Dunham is named director of the Negro Unit of the Chicago branch of the Federal Theater Project and stages dances in several Chicago productions, including Run Li'l Chil'lun and The Emperor Jones.
Dunham choreographs A las Montanas, one of her first solos, and dances it at the Abraham Lincoln Center in Chicago.
1939
Dunham begins her film career with Carnival of Rhythm. The short film written by Stanley Martin, directed by Jean Negulesco, and produced by Warner Brothers is devoted entirely to her, her company, and her choreography.
Dunham choreographs Bahiana, which premieres at a concert at the University of Cincinnati. This number would become one of Dunham's most celebrated characterizations and would remain in her repertory throughout the 1940s.
Published under the pseudonym Kaye Dunn and the heading "Sketchbook of a Young Dancer in La Martinique," two articles by Dunham appear in Esquire: "La Boule Blanche" (September 1939) and "L'Ag'ya of Martinique" (November 1939).
Dunham begins work on Broadway. She is invited to contribute new material to the popular musical revue Pins and Needles, produced by the International Ladies Garment Workers' Union Players.
1940
As Pins and Needles continues its run at the Windsor Theater, New York, Dunham books her own company into the theater for a Sunday performance. These concerts, billed as Tropics and Le Jazz "Hot," consist of dances based on Latin American and Caribbean sources ( Island Song, Tropic-Shore Excursion, and Woman with a Cigar) and dances based on African-American sources ( Br'er Rabbit an' de Tah Baby, Flaming Youth, 1927, and Floyd's Guitar Blues).
Dunham collaborates with George Balanchine on choreography for dances in the musical play Cabin in the Sky. The show opens at the Martin Beck Theater in October 1940 and runs until March 1941, playing 156 performances.
1941
Dunham and her company of dancers and musicians embark on their first United States tour in the Broadway production of Cabin in the Sky.
Dunham marries Canadian John Pratt, an established white artist who had joined her company as its set and costume designer.
1942
Contracted to be a featured dancer in the patriotic film Star Spangled Rhythm, Dunham choreographs and appears in a solo number, "Sharp as a Tack."
1943
Impresario Sol Hurok presents Katherine Dunham and her company in Tropical Revue, which opens at New York's Martin Beck Theater. The show is billed as "a musical heatwave … voodoo! Boogie! Shimmy! jazz and jive! primitive rites!" The show opens with lively Latin American and Caribbean dances and, in the second part, a dramatic ballet, such as Rites de Passage or L'Ag'Ya, is featured. The finale usually consists of plantation dances, dances set to Negro spirituals, and American social dances.
Dunham and her company appear in the film Stormy Weather, a show-business story starring Bill Robinson and Lena Horne.
1944
The Dunham School of Dance and Theater opens in New York in Caravan Hall on West Fifty-ninth Street.
In October, Dunham addresses an all-white audience at Memorial Auditorium in Louisville, Kentucky, in a curtain speech in which she speaks out against segregation.
1945
The Dunham School in New York moves to 220 West 43rd Street, where it will continue to operate until 1957.
Dunham choreographs, directs, and stars in the musical play Carib Song, which opens in September at the Adelphi Theater in New York. The finale to the first act is Shango, a staged interpretation of a Vodun ritual that would become a permanent part of her repertoire
John Pratt is drafted into the U.S. Army, and Dunham assumes charge of the company's costumes and sets, in addition to directing the company.
1946
The Dunham School is renamed the Katherine Dunham School of Arts and Research. Its components are the Dunham School of Dance and Theater, the Department of Cultural Studies, and the Institute for Caribbean Research. Teachers in the Dance Division include José Limón (modern dance). Among performers who study at the school over the years are Arthur Mitchell, James Dean, Peter Gennaro, Marlon Brando, Chita Rivera, Eartha Kitt, and José Ferrer.
Dunham's first book is published: Journey to Accompong. It recounts her experiences among the Maroon people of Jamaica in 1935-1936.
European interest in Bal Nègre leads to the company's first European tour and results in an invitation by Doris Duke, the tobacco heiress, to appear in Mexico under Teatro Americano.
1947
"Dances of Haiti," Dunham's thesis written for the University of Chicago in 1937, is translated into Spanish by Javier Romero and published as Las danzas de Haití as a special issue of Acta antropológica 2.4. It will subsequently be published in French as Les danse d'Haïti, and in English as Dances of Haiti.
1948
Dunham and her company appear in the film Casbah. Dunham (uncredited) appears as the character Odette; Eartha Kitt appears as herself. Dunham choreographs and stages two scenes: the Ramadan Festival and the Casbah Nightclub.
1949
Dunham purchases Habitation Leclerc, an estate in Haiti said to have been the residence of Pauline Bonaparte Leclerc, sister of Napoleon.
1951
Dunham and her company tour South America, Europe, and North Africa (1951-1953).
Against advice, Dunham premieres her ballet Southland at the Teatro Municipal in Santiago, Chile. Its story centers on the lynching of a black man falsely accused of raping a white girl in the American South, and Dunham's dramatic treatment of it is shocking. Under pressure from the U.S. embassy, which objects to the negative picture of American society it gives to foreign audiences, the ballet is removed from the program.
1952
The Dunham School in New York is again renamed, becoming the Katherine Dunham School of Cultural Arts.
Dunham is named a chevalier of the Haitian Légion d'Honneur et Merite.
Dunham's short story "Afternoon into Night" appears in Bandwagon (June 1952). It is later reprinted in Best Short Stories by Negro Writers, edited by Langston Hughes.
Dunham and her company tour North Africa (1952-1953).
1954
Dunham and her company tour Europe and South America (1954-1955).
Dunham and her company appear in two European films. Mambo, an Italian film includes rare footage of the company in classroom demonstrations of Dunham Technique.
1955
Dunham and her company tour Mexico.
Dunham and her company appear in the Mexican film Música en la noche. The Dunham Company dances Dora and Cakewalk.
1956
Dunham and her company tour Australia and New Zealand (1956-1957).
1958
Dunham and her company tour East Asia.
1959
Dunham's third book is published: A Touch of Innocence: Memoirs of Childhood.
1960
The Dunham Company's third European tour ends in Vienna. Because of bad management by their impresario, the company is stranded without money. Dunham quickly raises money by negotiating contracts for television shows and a club date.
The Dunham Company disbands. Dunham will assemble pick-up companies for later special events, but 1960 effectively marks the end of the continuous history of a company of dancers trained by her in Dunham Technique and coached by her to perform Dunham choreography
1964
Dunham becomes artist-in-residence at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale
1965
Katherine Dunham reassembles some of her dancers for in New York for the American Ballet Theater's twenty-fifth anniversary gala.
Dunham directs the musical comedy Deux Anges Sont Venus at the Théâtre de Paris.
1966
Katherine Dunham is invited by President Léopold Senghor to train the National Ballet of Senegal. He appoints her adviser for the first World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture, also known as the World Festival of Negro Arts (Festival des Arts Nègre), held in Dakar. For the first time, the U.S. State Department gives Dunham official status in naming her U.S. representative to the festival in Dakar.
1967
Katherine Dunham and John Pratt lease a house in Dakar, Senegal, where she completes the manuscripts for Island Possessed (published in 1969) and a fantasy for young people with a Senegalese setting, Kasamance (published in 1974).
Dunham receives a $400,000 grant from the federal Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) to open a cultural arts center in East St. Louis but is denied by local politicians.
The Equal Opportunity Commission funds Dunham's proposal for creating a Performing Arts Training Center (PATC) in East St. Louis, which eventually results in an educational center, children's auxiliary company, and a semiprofessional dance group that would tour the Midwestern, Southern, and Eastern United States.
Dunham establishes a cultural education program at the Alton campus of Southern Illinois University and, with two former members of the Dunham company, establishes classes at Rock Junior High School in East Saint Louis.
1968
Dunham is named a grand officer of the Haitian Légion d'Honneur et Merite and receives the Professional Achievement Award from the University of Chicago Alumni Association.
1974
Dunham is named to the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame and to the Entertainment Hall of Fame Foundation
1976
Dunham is visiting professor of Afro-American studies at the University of California at Berkeley.
An exhibit honoring Dunham is mounted in the Women's Center at the University of California at Berkeley. Entitled Kaiso! Katherine Dunham, it includes photographs highlighting the many dimensions of Dunham's life and work.
1977
The Katherine Dunham Museum and Children's Workshop is opened in East St. Louis.
1978
Dunham receives the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s Dance Pioneer Award.
1979
The international opening of the Katherine Dunham Museum in East St. Louis is attended by former members of the Dunham Company and representatives from Senegal, Haiti, and other foreign countries.
1980
Katherine Dunham's work Rites de Passage is taped for Dance in America for the program "Divine Drumbeats: Katherine Dunham and Her People."
1982
Dunham retires from Southern Illinois University.
1983
Dunham is one of five recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors in Washington, D.C.
1986
John Pratt, Dunham's husband and artistic collaborator for forty-seven years, dies.
1988
The governments of both Haiti and France designate Dunham as an officier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in their respective countries.
1989
Dunham is awarded a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame for the field of acting and entertainment.
President George Bush makes the fifth annual presentation of the National Medal of the Arts to nine people in various fields of arts and letters: Alfred Eisenstaedt (photography), Dizzy Gillespie (jazz), John Updike (fiction), Katherine Dunham (dance), Walker Hancock (sculpture), Czeslaw Milosz (poetry), Robert Motherwell (painting), Leopold Adler (historic preservation), and Vladimir Horowitz (music). Dunham is honored "for her pioneering explorations of Caribbean and African dance, which have enriched and transformed the art of dance in America."
1992
Katherine Dunham begins a hunger strike to focus international attention on the plight of Haitian refugeesseeking asylum in the United States who, under the orders of President George Bush, were being sent back to Haiti. After forty-seven days, she ends her fast after concerns for her health are voiced by exiled Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide and others.
1993
The government of Haiti awards citizenship to Katherine Dunham.
1994
Katherine Dunham becomes artist-in-residence and lecturer at the University of Hawaii.
2000
Katherine Dunham is named one of " America's Irreplaceable Dance Treasures" by the Dance Heritage Coalition. The Library of Congress receives $1 million from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to undertake the Katherine Dunham Legacy Project.
The superintendent of School District 189 in East St. Louis and other community leaders present plans for the Katherine Dunham Academy of Performing, Visual, and Cultural Arts.
2002
The Library of Congress begins a complete documentation of Dunham Technique.