Katherine Dunham

Dancer, choreographer, teacher, anthropologist, company director, author, activist on behalf of African American issues and the country of Haiti, and heralded beauty – this was Katherine Dunham even in her 97th year. A native of Illinois, she was educated academically and in dance (with Ludmilla Speranzeva and Mark Turbyfill). Anthropological field work in the Caribbean in 1935 led her to maintain close ties with Haiti throughout her life, and the dances she observed and learned during her travels served as the basis for much of her persuasive choreography.

Her revues were especially popular in New York in the 1940s, later her company toured to 50 countries. Dunham is most widely known for the appearances in Hollywood movies such as “Stormy Weather.“
To the dance world Alvin Ailey got a big influence through her. In 1987, the Alvin American Dance Theater produced an evening-length anthology of her dances in a program called “Magic of Katherine Dunham,” with masterful and lusciously colored sets and costumes from the original designs by John Pratt, who was married to Dunham from 1941 until his death in 1986. In the late 1960’s, Dunham began teaching dance in East St. Louis; she ...