As stated above, two central figures laid the ground work for the development of Modern Black Dance. These two ladies were not just great performers, but Cultural Anthropologist, scientist, educators and social activist. They viewed African Dance and Modern Black Dance as an endless cycle of historical investigation. Katherine Dunham stated in an interview that some people go through their entire life just existing from day to day, but that she can only exist where consciousness is foremost in the minds of the people.
She along with Pearl Primus spent their entire life sharing their research and knowledge of dance. The essay also discusses several dance companies who were directly or indirectly influenced by Pearl Primus and Katherine Dunham: The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Dance Theater of Harlem, Dallas Contemporary Dance Theater and Dayton Contemporary Dance Company. These particular dance companies were highlighted because they are internationally known and have won many distinguish awards. I hope you will enjoy the essay and come away with the idea that dance is more than just movement of the feet and body, but it is an expression of the way people live their lives, enjoy comrades.
Katherine Dunham March 30, 2011Posted in: Art and Music Unlike Primus, Katherine spent her early years studying Classical Ballet in Chicago. After attending a lecture by Robert Redfield, a professor of anthropology who specialized in American Indian and African cultures, she discovered that much of Black Culture in Modern American had begun in Africa. Like Primus, she spent her whole life studying ethic and African Culture and sharing her knowledge threw dance. Printed below is a time line of her life which can be found at the library of congress. Katherine Dunham Collection Special Presentation: Katherine Dunham Timeline
A studio photograph of Katherine Dunham in the 1920s. Courtesy of the Missouri Historical Society, Katherine Mary Dunham is born on 22 June 1909 in a Chicago hospital. Her father, Albert Millard Dunham, is black; her mother, Fanny June Dunham, is a woman of French-Canadian and American Indian heritage. Shortly after her birth, her parents take the infant Katherine to their home in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, a village about fifteen miles west of Chicago. She spends her early years there in the company of her brother, Albert Jr., who is six years older than she. They become devoted to each other.
In 1913, Fanny June Dunham, who was twenty years older than her husband, dies. Katherine and Albert Jr. are sent to live with their father’s sister, Lulu, on the South Side of Chicago. In 1915, Albert Sr. marries Annette Poindexter, and the children go to live with their father and stepmother in Joliet, Illinois. Their stepmother becomes a benevolent influence, but their father is a strict disciplinarian who lays down hard rules of behavior and dispenses physical punishment for infractions. Dunham’s short story, “Come Back to Arizona,” written when she was twelve years old, appears in volume 2 (August 1921) of The Brownies’ Book, a periodical edited by W.E.B. Du Bois. 1922/> In high school, Katherine Dunham joins the Terpsichorean Club and begins to learn a kind of free-style modern dance based on ideas of Jaques-Dalcroze and Rudolf von Laban. At fourteen, to help raise money for her church, she organizes a “cabaret party.” She is the producer, director, and star of the entertainment.
1928/> In Chicago, Dunham begins to study ballet with Ludmilla Speranzeva, who had come to America with a Franco-Russian vaudeville troupe known as the Chauve-Souris. Speranzeva, one of the first ballet teachers to accept black dancers as students, 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. Having attended a junior college in Joliet, Illinois, Katherine Dunham follows her brother Albert to the University of Chicago. She attends a lecture by Robert Redfield, a professor of anthropology who specialized in American Indian and African cultures. From him she learns that much of black culture in modern America had begun in Africa. She decides to major in anthropology and to focus on dances of the African diaspora. In the course of her studies, she attends classes taught by Redfield, A. R. Radcliffe-Browne, Edward Sapir, Lloyd Warner, and others. 1930 Katherine Dunham forms a dance company, Ballet Nègre, one of the first Negro ballet companies in America.
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Richardg, 2011
Most of the background information concerning the life and times of Pearl Primus was taken from Wikipedia and several other sources. I wanted to start the discussion on Black Modern Dance with Pearl Primus because she was mainly interested in the study of African Culture and dance. Her mission was to change people’s perceptions and attitudes about African dance through education and performance. She took trips to Africa and wrote books about African dance. She wanted Black people and others to understand that <br />
