History of Black Dance/Pearl Primus/Pt.6

By
richardg
– March 31, 2011Posted in: Art and Music

Pioneer of African dance in the United States

Primus’ sojourn to West Africa has proven invaluable to students of African dance. She learned more about African dance, its function and meaning than had any other American before her. She was able to codify the technical details of many of the African dances through the notation system she evolved and was also able to view and to salvage some “still existent gems of dances before they faded into general decadence” (Primus, from the Schomburg Library: Primus File, 1949). She has been unselfish in sharing the knowledge she has gained with others.

The significance of Primus’ African research and choreography lies in her presentation of a dance history which embraces ethnic unity, the establishment of an articulate foundation for influencing future practitioners of African dance, the presentation of African dance forms into a disciplined expression, and the enrichment of American theater through the performance of African dance.
Walking With Pearl… Africa Diaries
Choreography by Jawole Willa Jo Zollar in collaboration with The Company

All text by Pearl Primus. Copyright © Pearl Primus and the Estate of Pearl Primus. Text from the Pearl Primus Collection, courtesy American Dance Festival Archives.
Music: Toumani Diabate and Ballaké Sissoko, New Ancient Strings, 1999 and “Nhemamusasa,” a traditional Zimbabwean song played by Cosmas, Alexi Kanengoni and Simon Magaya; recorded by Paul Berliner/Nonesuch Records, Explorer Series.
Lighting Design: Susan Hamburger

Additionally, Primus and the late Percival Borde, her husband and partner, conducted research with the Liberian Konama Kende Performing Arts Center to establish a performing arts center, and with a Rebekah Harkness Foundation grant to organize and direct dance performances in several counties during the period of 1959 to 1962. Primus and Borde taught African dance artists how to make their indigenous dances theatrically entertaining and acceptable to the western world, and also arranged projects between African countries such as Senegal, Gambia, Guinea and the United States Government to bring touring companies to this country.




Choreography approach and style Primus’ approach to developing a movement language and to creating dance works parallels that of Graham, Holm, Wiedman, de Mille and others who are considered to be pioneers of American modern dance. These artists searched literature, used music of contemporary composers, glorified regional idiosyncrasies and looked to varied ethnic groups for potential sources of creative material. Primus, however, found her creative impetus in the cultural heritage of the African American. Fusing spirituals, jazz and blues and then coupling these music forms with the literacy works of black writers, Primus’ choereographic voice- though strong-resonated primarily for and to the black people on whose experiences her works were based. Her style, her themes and her body type promoted modern dance among African-Americans. Primus’ strong belief that rich choreographic material lay in abundance in the root experiences of a people has been picked up and echoed in the rhythm and themes of Alvin Ailey, Donald McKayle, Talley Beatty, Dianne McIntyre, Elo Pomare and others.
Bush Women Dance Company Performs one of Primus’s Dances

Primus believed in sound research. Her meticulous search of libraries and museums and her use of living source materials established her as a dance scholar.
Continue reading…pt.5

History of Black Dance/Pearl Primus/pt.7

History of Black Dance/Pearl Primus/pt.5

By
richardg
– March 31, 2011Posted in: Art and Music

Some of her works

Pearl Primus focused on matters such as oppression, racial prejudice, and violence. Her efforts were also subsidized by the United States government who encouraged African-American artistic endeavors. In 1944, she interpreted Langston Hughes The Negro Speaks of Rivers (1944), and in 1945 she created Strange Fruit(1945), based on the poem by Lewis Allan about a lynching. Hard Time Blues (1945) is based on a song about sharecroppers by folksinger Josh White.

Primus married the dancer and choreographer Percival Borde in 1954, and began a collaboration that ended only with his death in 1979. In 1959, the year Primus received an M.A. in education from New York University, she traveled to Liberia, where she worked with the National Dance Company there to create Fanga, an interpretation of a traditional Liberian invocation to the earth and sky.

In 1978, Primus received a Ph.D. in Dance Education from New York University. The following year she created Michael, Row Your Boat Ashore(1979), about the 1963 Birmingham, Alabama, church bombing. From 1984 to 1990 Primus served as a professor of ethnic studies, and artist in residence at the Five Colleges consortium in Massachusetts. In 1990, she became the first chair of the Five Colleges Dance Consortium. Her original dance company eventually grew into the Pearl Primus Dance Language Institute, where her method of blending African-American, Caribbean, and African influences with modern dance and ballet techniques is taught.

History of Modern Black Dance/Katherine Dunham/pt.8

– 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.

History Of Modern Black Dance in America/Katherine Dunham/pt.9

History of Black Dance/Katherine Dunham/pt.2




By
richardg
– March 30, 2011Posted in: Art and Music

1931
Ballet Nègre gives its debut performance at the annual Beaux Arts Ball in Chicago. One of the numbers on the program is Negro Rhapsody, which is well received. No engagements follow, and the group disbands.
Dunham marries Jordis McCoo, a postal worker. Although he dances in some of her productions, he does not share her interests. They gradually drift apart.
1932

Dunham consults Speranzeva about her idea to open a school for young black dancers, where she could teach them about their African heritage. Speranzeva advises her to forgo ballet, to focus on modern dance, and to develop her own style. [ Katherine Dunham on Need for the Dunham Technique ]
1933


Katherine Dunham and her students.
Courtesy of Special Collections
Research Center, Morris Library,
So. Illinois University, Carbondale.
Dunham opens her first dance school, the Negro Dance Group, in Chicago. With Speranzeva’s help, it survives a rocky start and Dunham’s subsequent absences when she was engaged in anthropological fieldwork.
1934
In a Chicago Opera production, Dunham dances the leading role in Ruth Page’s ballet La Guiablesse (The Devil Woman). Based on a Martinican legend, it has an all-black cast. Dunham continues to appear as a guest artist with the Chicago Opera, where she acts as assistant to its ballet director, Ruth Page.
Dunham revives her company, Ballet Nègre, with students from her school, the Negro Dance Group. Works in the repertory choreographed by Dunham include Spanish Dance and Fantasie Nègre.
Dunham and her company appear at the Chicago World’s Fair.
1935
Dunham receives a grant from the Julius Rosenwald Fund to study the dances of the West Indies. After a course of study with Melville Herskovitz, head of the anthropology department at Northwestern University, she embarks for the Caribbean with letters of introduction written by Herskovits to Haitian anthropologist Dr. Jean Price-Mars, Colonel Simon Rowe of the Maroon people of Jamaica, President Stenio Vincent of Haiti, and other government officials and scholars in Haiti.
Dunham arrives in Whitehall, Jamaica, whence she travels to the mountain village of Accompong. After a brief stay, she travels to Martinique and Trinidad. She conducts anthropological fieldwork wherever she goes.
1936

Katherine Dunham in “Rara
Tonga”, which premiered in
1937. Photographer, Studio
Iris.
Early in the year Dunham arrives in Haiti, the final stop of her field trip. She feels a strong sense of identification with the place and the people. She is fascinated with the danced religion called Vodun. In late spring Dunham returns to the United States, and in June she presents the results of her research to her sponsors at the Rosenwald Fund. Her presentation includes pictures, music, and dance.
In August Dunham receives a Ph.B. degree (bachelor of philosophy degree) from the University of Chicago. Her major field of study is recorded as social anthropology.
continue reading…pt.3

History Of Modern Black Dance in America/Katherine Dunham/pt.10

of Black Dance/Katherine Dunham/pt.3
By
richardg
– March 30, 2011Posted in: Art and Music

1937

Dunham and her company make a one-time appearance at the Young Men’s Hebrew Association (YMHA) on Ninety-second Street in New York City, joining African and African-American modern dancers Edna Guy, Alison Burroughs, Clarence Yates, and Asadata Dafora for A Negro Dance Evening. On the first half of the program, Dunham presents a suite of West Indian dances. In the second half of the program, “Modern Trends,” Dunham presents Tropic Death, which casts Talley Beatty as the fugitive from a lynch mob.

History Of Modern Black Dance in America/Katherine Dunham/pt.11

History of Black Dance/Katherine Dunham/pt.4

By richardg

– March 30, 2011Posted in: Art and Music

1939

Katherine Dunham and Dance Company perform for the Quadres Society of the University of Cincinnati.

Dunham begins her film career with Carnival of Rhythm, a 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. She, Archie Savage, and Talley Beatty are the stars. Released in 1941, it includes Ciudad Maravillosa and early versions of Los Indios, Batucada , and Adeus Terras. All are based on

History Of Modern Black Dance in America/Katherine Dunham/pt.12

History of Black Dance/Katherine Dunham/pt.5

By
richardg
– March 30, 2011Posted in: Art and Music

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. Henceforth, he would design sets and costumes for virtually every production of the Dunham Company and every costume Dunham would wear on stage and in films.
Dunham premieres Rites de Passage at the Curran Theater in San Francisco.
Read notes on Rites de Passage .

1942
Hollywood summons her again. 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,” with music by Harold Arlen and lyrics by Johnny Mercer.
Dunham stages dances for the film Pardon My Sarong, a comedy starring Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. Neither she nor members of her company appear in the film.
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. The original two-week engagement is extended by popular demand into a three-month run. After eighty-seven performances on Broadway, the company takes the show on a national tour.
Dunham and her company appear in the film Stormy Weather, a show-business story starring Bill Robinson and Lena Horne.
Read notes on Stormy Weather .
continue reading….pt.6

History Of Modern Black Dance in America/Katherine Dunham/pt.13

History of Black Dance/Katherine Dunham/pt.6
– March 30, 2011Posted in: Art and Music By richardg

1944
In January, Dunham preieres Choros (nos. 1-5) at the Royal Alexandra Theatre, Toronto. Set to music by Vidaco Gogliano, Choros is a stylized version of a nineteenth-century Brazilian quadrille. Two of the sections (nos. 1 and 4) would later be joined and performed as an independent work.
In February, Flaming Youth, 1927 premieres in New Britain, Connecticut. The scene is a small Chicago nightclub, where a hostess wearily awaits the arrival of customers. The women are dressed as flappers, in knee-length beaded dresses and cloche hats; the men wear slickers and raccoon coats; a gigolo sports a satin shirt. They dance the Charleston, the Black Bottom, the Mooch, the Fishtail, and Snake Hips. A drunken woman starts a fight. The police are called.

The Dunham School of Dance and Theater opens in New York in Caravan Hall (Isadora Duncan’s former studio) on West Fifty-ninth Street.
Dunham and her company appear in such clubs as Chez Paree in Chicago, El Rancho Hotel and the Trocadero in Las Vegas, and Ciro’s in Hollywood.
Tropical Review appears for one week at Cleveland’s Hanna Theater. Plain Dealer critic William F. Mc Dermott writes that the show “is frantic in movement, primitive in feeling, bold in suggestion and yet it is projected with a finesse and adroitness based on discipline, control and intelligence…. Miss Dunham is a show woman of great deftness, both as a director and as a performer.”

A call for Use and New Computers

In October, Dunham addresses the all-white audience at Memorial Auditorium in Louisville, Kentucky, in a curtain speech in which she speaks out against segregation. “It makes me very happy to know that you have liked us . . .,” she says, “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.”
1945
The Dunham School in New York moves to 220 West 43rd Street, where it will continue to operate until 1957.
Tropical Review tours to Los Angeles, where critic Edwin Schallert raves that “Miss Dunham virtually had the audience tearing down the house at times with applause, and there was hardly a moment of her varied program that did not intrigue with its strange veerings from violence to languor” (Los Angeles Times, 9 April 1945).
The Katherine Dunham Dancers appear at the Belasco Theater in New York in Blue Holiday, a Negro variety show starring Ethel Waters. Dunham creates and stages two numbers: “Voodoo in Haiti,” featuring Josephine Premice, and “Fiji Island,” featuring Lavinia Williams and Talley Beatty. The show closes after eight performances.

Teaching A Young Student





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 company’s repertory.
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.
Dunham’s article “Goombay,” a memoir of her visit to the Maroon people of Jamaica, appears in the November issue of Mademoiselle.
continue reading….pt.7

History of Modern Black Dance in America/Katherine Dunham/pt.14

History of Black Dance/Katherine Dunham/pt.7

By richardg
– March 30, 2011Posted in: Art and Music

1946
Katherine Dunham Pioneer of Black Dance
In January, Dunham premieres Nañigo and La Camparsa, as numbers in the suite Motivos, at the Temple Theater in Portland, Oregon. Nañigo, set to music by Gilberto Valdes, is a choreographic interplay among a group of male practitioners of an Afro-Cuban religious cult. A soloist represents ancient Yoruba dance tradition, while the other dancers perform modern variations. La Camparsa, set to music by Ernesto Lecuona, centers on a lone woman, wandering the streets in the early-morning hours after Carnival, who encounters three men, one of whom she believes may be her husband.
The Dunham School is now known as 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 Todd Bolender (ballet), Marie Bryant (tap and boogie), and José Limón (modern dance). Dunham Technique is taught by Tommy Gomez, Archie Savage, Lavinia Williams, and Syvilla Fort, who also teaches ballet. Teachers in the Drama Division include Herbert Berghof (acting), John Pratt (visual design), and Karl Vollmoeller (history of drama, play writing). 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 (New York: Henry Holt, 1946; reprint, Westport, Conn.: Negro Universities Press, 1971). It recounts her experiences among the Maroon people of

Jamaica in 1935-1936.
John Pratt is discharged from the army. He rejoins the company in time for the production of Bal Nègre, a music and dance revue directed and choreographed by Dunham.

In December, after a nine-month tour, Bal Nègre opens at New York’s Belasco Theater. It receives glowing reviews.
Bal Nègre attracts attention from European producers, which leads to the company’s first European tour and results in an invitation by Doris Duke, the tobacco heiress, to appear in Mexico under a contract with Teatro Americano.
1947
The Katherine Dunham Experimental Group presents Caribbean Backgrounds at Howard University in Washington, D.C.
Dunham choreographs the musical play Windy City, which premieres at the Great Northern Theater in Chicago. The show concerns the character and vitality of the people of Chicago and is said to have influenced Jerome Robbins’s choreography for West Side Story.
“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 (Mexico, 1947). It will subsequently be published in French as Les danse d’Haïti, with a foreword by Claude Lévi-Strauss (Paris: Éditions Fasquelle, 1950), and in English as Dances of Haiti, with photographs by Patricia Cummings (Center for Afro-American Studies, University of California, Los Angeles, 1983).
Rhumba Trio is premiered at Mexico’s Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes.
continue reading….pt.8

History of Modern Black Dance in America/Katherine Dunham/pt.15

– March 30, 2011Posted in: Art and Music
History of Black Dance/Katherine Dunham/pt.8

1948
Dunham choreographs Angelique, Blues Trio, and Veracuzana for engagements at Ciro’s nightclub in Hollywood. Veracruzana will be included in later revues and will become one of Dunham’s most popular numbers. In his review of a performance in 1955, Walter Terry writes, “‘Veracruzana’ . . . is alive with colorful and humorous incidents and inspired passages of choreography. In this number, one of the most unforgettable of Dunham images is to be found, the sight of the star herself dressed all in white and lolling on an enormous white swing which spans the stage” (New York Herald Tribune, 23 November 1955).

Dunham and her company appear in the film Casbah, a romantic tale of jewel thieves in Algiers starring Yvonne de Carlo, Tony Martin, and Peter Lorre. Dunham (uncredited) appears as Odette; Eartha Kitt appears as herself. Dunham choreographs and stages two scenes: the Ramadan Festival and the Casbah Nightclub.
Dunham appears with her company in London at the Prince of Wales Theatre in A Caribbean Rhapsody, a music and dance revue. Theater critic David Lewin notes that “A first-night audience was bewildered, enthralled, wildly enthusiastic about a new-type musical which exhilarates with its speed and animal primitiveness” and observed that Dunham “scored the greatest hit since Danny Kaye” (Daily Express, 6 May 1948).
Dunham delivers an address, “The State of Cults among the Deprived,” to the Royal Anthropological Society in London.
1949
Dunham and her company perform at the Alhambra Theater in Brussels.
Dunham premieres Jazz in Five Movements at the Théâtre National de l’Opéra in Paris. One of the dances on the program, Tango, is later performed as an independent work.
Dunham and her company appear in the Italian film Botta e risposta. Louis Armstrong, Fernandel, and Isa Miranda are also featured. Two numbers from the Dunham repertory, Batucada and a segment of Jazz in Five Movements, are included.
Dunham choreographs Afrique and a new version of Adeus Terras while in Rome.
After years of mental illness, Dunham’s beloved brother Albert dies in Saint Elizabeth’s Hospital, Washington, D.C.
Dunham purchases Habitation Leclerc, an estate in Haiti said to have been the residence of Pauline Bonaparte Leclerc, sister of Napoleon.
Continue reading…. pt.9

History Of Modern Black Dance in America/Katherine Dunham/pt.16

– March 30, 2011Posted in: Art and Music By richardg

History of black Dance/Katherine Dunham/pt.9

1950
Sol Hurok presents Katherine Dunham and Her Company in a dance revue in three parts, a prologue, and ten scenes at the Broadway Theater in New York. The opening-night program includes Afrique, Choros , Adeus Terras, Batucada , Veracruzana, Flaming Youth, Barrelhouse , Jazz in Five Movements, and L’Ag’Ya . Afrique and Barrelhouse are subsequently dropped, and Rites des Passage and Shango are substituted. The show closes after thirty-eight performances.
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.
Katherine Dunham
My LOve For Dance



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.
Read notes on Southland .
Dunham and her husband John Pratt adopt a four-year-old child, Marie-Christine, whom they had found in a Catholic convent nursery in Fresnes, near Paris.
1952


The Dunham School in New York is renamed the Katherine Dunham School of Cultural Arts.
A photograph of Dunham appears on the front cover of Ballet magazine (March 1952).
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 (Boston: Little, Brown, 1967).

Dunham and her company perform in Denmark to high critical acclaim. The Berlingske Tidende (12 July) noted that the performance “became one of the great and rare experiences in which an artist and an artistically managed ensemble quite simply overwhelmed its audience on their first appearance.” Berlingske Aftenavis (12 July) said that the audience “was wild with joy and cheered the unrivaled Dunham with hurricanes of applause.” According to Politiken, the company took ten curtain calls and the Aftenbladet (12 July) claimed that the performance was a gift to Copenhageners, “the richest and most varied theater evening offered us in a long time.”

Dunham choreographs and performs in Acaraje for Hommage à Dorival Caymmi in Arachon, France.
Dunham and her company perform at the Windsor Palace in Barcelona.
Dunham and her company tour North Africa (1952-1953).
1953
Dunham choreographs Afrique du Nord, which she and her company perform at the Cave Supper Club in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Dunham and her company tour the United States and Mexico.
continue reading….pt.10

History of black Dance/Katherine Dunham/pt.17

History of black Dance/Katherine Dunham/pt.10 By richardg – March 30, 2011Posted in: Art and Music 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 starring Silvana Mangano, includes rare footage of the company in classroom demonstrations of Dunham Technique. Read notes on Mambo Die Grosse Starparade, a German film also known as Liebessender, includes three numbers from the Dunham repertory: Choros (nos.1 and 4), Shango , and Tropics. 1955 Dunham and her company tour Mexico. Along with Carmen Amaya and her flamenco dancers, Dunham and her company appear in the Mexican film Música en la noche. The Dunham Company dances Dora and Cakewalk. The film is released in the United States in 1958. Dunham and her company perform in the Greek Theater, Los Angeles. Sol Hurok presents Katherine Dunham and Her Company in a dance revue in three acts and twelve scenes (i.e., Caribbean Rhapsody) at the Broadway Theater, New York. Dance critic Walter Terry writes, “Miss Dunham presents one of the handsomest productions you are likely to see in these parts” (New York Herald Tribune, 23 November 1955). Terry singles out three numbers for special praise: Veracruzana, Rituals (i.e., Rites of Passage), and Barrelhouse . The show closes after thirty-two performances.

Little Katherine

1956 Dunham and her company tour Australia and New Zealand (1956-1957). 1958 Dunham and her company tour East Asia. Dunham provides choreography for the film Green Mansions, starring Audrey Hepburn and Anthony Perkins. Neither she nor her company appears in the film, which was released in 1959.

1959 Dunham’s third book is published: A Touch of Innocence: Memoirs of Childhood (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1959; reprint, University of Chicago Press, 1994). In a note to the reader she says that “this book is not an autobiography. It is the story of a world that has vanished. . . . And it is the story of a family that I knew very well, and especially of a girl and a young woman whom I rediscovered while writing about the members of this family.” Dunham and her company embark on their third major European tour, which takes them to Denmark, Germany, France, Greece, and other countries continue reading pt.11

History Of Modern Black Dance in America/Katherine Dunham/pt.18

History of black Dance/Katherine Dunham/pt.18
– March 30, 2011Posted in: Art and Music
By
richardg


1965
In February, Dunham stages Charles Gounod’s opera Faust at Southern Illinois University, changing the scene to World War II Germany. Her dramatic interpretive dances include students playing basketball with a skull, bodies hanging from wires, and the devil (Mephistopheles) roaring across the stage on a motorcycle. After two performances on the Carbondale campus, the production is repeated at Monticello College in Alton, Illinois.
Katherine Dunham reassembles some of her dancers for a New York performance on the occasion of American Ballet Theater’s twenty-fifth anniversary gala.
Dunham directs Albert Husson’s musical comedy Deux Anges Sont Venus, starring Charles Aznavour, at the Théâtre de Paris.
Dunham directs Ciao, Rudi in Rome.
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 in April. For the first time, the U.S. State Department gives Dunham official status in naming her U.S. representative to the festival in Dakar. In Senegal, Dunham meets Mor Thiam, a master drummer, whom she invites to teach in East Saint Louis.
1967

Katherine Dunham in a 1960s
publicity photograph.
Photographer, Studio Iris.
Courtesy of Special Collections
Research Center, Morris Library,
Southern Illinois University,
Carbondale.
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).
On her return to Illinois, Dunham collaborates with Buckminster Fuller on a proposal for a cultural arts center in East Saint Louis. Dunham receives a $400,000 grant from the federal Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) but is thwarted by local politicians who do not share her vision.
The Equal Opportunity Commission, as part of the Southern Illinois University’s Experiment in Higher Education, funds Dunham’s proposal for creating a Performing Arts Training Center (PATC) in East Saint 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.
continue reading pt.13

History Of Modern Black Dance in America/Katherine Dunham/pt.19

– March 30, 2011Posted in: Art and Music
By
richardg
–
History of black Dance/Katherine Dunham/pt.19



1974
Dunham’s fifth book is published: Kasamance: A Fantasy (New York: Odarkai Books, 1974). An allegorical African tale for young people set in Senegal, it is illustrated by Bennie Arrington after original drawings by John Pratt.
Dunham is named to the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame and to the Entertainment Hall of Fame Foundation
Dunham lectures at the International Institute of Ethnomusicology and Folklore in Caracas, Venezuela.
1975

The Katherine Dunham Fund purchases three adjoining houses in East Saint Louis from Southern Illinois University. Located on Tenth Street, one is to be Dunham and Pratt’s residence; one is to be used as an office (and later for storage); and the third, a stone building referred to as the “corner house,” is to be a residence for students, instructors, and visitors.
Dunham is given the International Women’s Year Award, United Nations Association, Saint Louis Chapter.
1976
Dunham is visiting professor of Afro-American studies for the spring quarter at the University of California at Berkeley.
In May, 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. Kaiso is an Afro-Caribbean term denoting praise.
The Katherine Dunham Fund buys and adapts for use as a museum an English Regency-style townhouse on Pennsylvania Avenue at Tenth Street in East Saint Louis. A carriage house on the grounds is to be converted into a studio for the Childrens Workshop.
1977

The Katherine Dunham Museum and Children’s Workshop is opened in East Saint Louis. The museum collection consists of furniture, paintings, musical instruments, costumes, decorations, photographs, sketches, a broad range of ethnic art objects, and a cross-section of personal belongings documenting Dunham’s life.
Dunham receives an honorary doctorate of literature from Atlanta University.
continue reading….pt.15

History Of Modern Black Dance in America/Katerine Dunham/pt.20

– March 30, 2011Posted in: Art and Music
By
richardg

The governments of both Haiti and France designate Dunham as an officier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in their respective countries. She is also named as recipient of the President’s Award of the National Council for Culture and Art, New York.
1989

Dunham is awarded a star on the Saint Louis Walk of Fame for the field of acting and entertainment.
History of Black Dance/Katerine Dunham/pt.13

In November, in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., 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). John Frohnmayer, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, reads the citations. Dunham is honored “for her pioneering explorations of Caribbean and African dance, which have enriched and transformed the art of dance in America.”
continue reading….pt.18

History Of Modern Black Dance in America/Katerine Dunham/pt.21

– March 30, 2011Posted in: Art and Music
By
richardg

The governments of both Haiti and France designate Dunham as an officier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in their respective countries. She is also named as recipient of the President’s Award of the National Council for Culture and Art, New York.
1989

Dunham is awarded a star on the Saint Louis Walk of Fame for the field of acting and entertainment.
History of Black Dance/Katerine Dunham/pt.13

In November, in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., 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). John Frohnmayer, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, reads the citations. Dunham is honored “for her pioneering explorations of Caribbean and African dance, which have enriched and transformed the art of dance in America.”
continue reading….pt.18

History Of Modern Black Dance in America/Katerine Dunham/pt.22

– March 30, 2011Posted in: Art and Music


By
richardg

History of Black Dance/Katerine Dunham/pt.14




Katherine Dunham receives an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Spelman College in Atlanta and the prestigious Caribbean Award from the government of Trinidad and Tobago.
Beginning in 1990, discussions at the annual Dunham Technique Seminar center around the creation of a method for certifying teachers of Dunham Technique.
1992
Katherine Dunham begins a hunger strike to focus international attention on the plight of Haitian refugees seeking 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. Dunham receives an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Chicago State University.
1994
Katherine Dunham becomes artist-in-residence and lecturer at the University of Hawaii.
1995
Dunham receives an honorary doctorate of fine arts from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles.
1999
Dunham reaches the venerable age of ninety, and a large birthday party is planned. Former Dunham dancers, students, friends, and community officials gather to dance for her and to pay tribute to her in East Saint Louis. Although a heavy rainfall causes a last-minute change of venue, the celebration is not dampened. During the course of the evening, a grant from the Illinois Arts Council is announced, and a Smith Award is presented to Dunham by representatives of the Smithsonian Institution. An observer describes Dunham as “resplendent in pink from the top of her head to her toes.”
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 Saint Louis and other community leaders present plans for the Katherine Dunham Academy of Performing, Visual, and Cultural Arts. The superintendent attends an institute at City Center in New York in August 2000, during which dance educators consider a pedagogy that incorporates Dunham’s methods and ideas about dance and society.
A photograph of Dunham in L’Ag’Ya appears on the front cover of Dance Magazine (August 2000). The feature article in the issue, written by Wendy Perron, is entitled “Katherine Dunham: One-Woman Revolution.”
continue reading….pt.19

History Of Modern Black Dance in America/Katerine Dunham/pt.23

– March 30, 2011Posted in: Art and Music
By
richardg

History of Black Dance/Katerine Dunham/pt.15

Illinois governor George Ryan announces a $57.4 million educational grant to the East Saint Louis district at a meeting with singer Harry Belafonte and actor Danny Glover, who, at Dunham’s request, were conducting a fact-finding mission in East Saint Louis preliminary to seeking funding for cultural and economic development projects.
2002
In honor of Dunham’s ninety-third birthday, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, in western Massachusetts, organizes a special tribute with American and African dancers and musicians.
Dunham receives an honorary doctorate of fine arts from Harvard University.
The Library of Congress begins a complete documentation of Dunham Technique.
2003


Dunham is honored with a three-day tribute in New York City with special presentations and performances at Symphony Space on upper Broadway.
2004
In late March, “A Conversation with Katherine Dunham” is presented at Barnard College in New York City. Dunham is interviewed by Paul Scolieri, an assistant professor of dance, in a large lecture hall where there is standing room only. Although confined to a wheelchair, Dunham does not seem frail. She notes that she will soon be ninety-five years old but says that she intends to live to be a hundred and forty, because she still has so much to do. The audience responds with applause.
In April, Katherine Dunham headlines Baila USA, the annual African-American cultural festival in Miami, Florida, sponsored by the Ifé-Ifé Afro-Cuban Dance and Music Ensemble. She teaches a master class, with assistance from Theodore Jamison, and attends a gala performance and a bembé, a traditional party of the Santería religion.
2006
Kaiso!: An Anthology of Writings by and about Katherine Dunham, edited by VèVè A. Clark and Sara E. Johnson, is published by the University of Wisconsin Press. A greatly expanded and updated edition of the 1978 publication, this new work is a volume of Studies in Dance History, a monograph series sponsored by the Society of Dance History Scholars and funded by the Katherine Dunham Legacy Project at the Library of Congress.

History Of Modern Black Dance in America/Alvin Ailey part.24

Art and Music Archive

Brief History Of Black Dance/Alvin Ailey
By
richardg
– March 30, 2011Posted in: Art and Music

Alvin Ailey Biography
( 1931 – 1989 )
My Forward:
I have reprinted Ailey’s biography which was taken from the encyclopedia of World Biography. There is no need for me to do any additional research concerning Alvin’s life, because there are many good biographies already written. I have one important thing to point out. The encyclopedia makes no mention of the fact that Alvin was a proud gay man who died from HIV. Another Biographer claimed that he died from a blood dyscrasia. By 1989, everyone knew that HIV and Aids was a major disease that was killing many gay men in our community. I think Ailey hid his disease because he did not want to embarrass his family and friends. But I think it is time for biographers to stop hiding the fact that he was a proud black gay man and prolific dance choreographer. It is no secret that a certain percentage of black male dancers are gay. I have even dated a few myself. If you would like to read more about Alvin’s life, I have listed several reading which might interest you.
Richardg
Reprinted from Encyclopedia of World Biography
Alvin Ailey Jr. was born to Alvin and Lula Elizabeth Ailey on January 5, 1931, in Rogers, Texas. He was an only child, and his father, a laborer, left the family when Alvin Jr. was less than one year old. At the age of six, Alvin Jr. moved with his mother to Navasota, Texas. As he recalled in an interview in the New York Daily News Magazine, “There was the white school up on the hill, and the black Baptist church, and the segregated [only members of one race allowed] theaters and neighborhoods. Like most of my generation, I grew up feeling like an outsider, like someone who didn’t matter.”
In 1942 Ailey and his mother moved to Los Angeles, California, where his mother found work in an aircraft factory. Ailey became interested in athletics and joined his high school gymnastics team and played football. An admirer of dancers Gene Kelly (1912–1996) and Fred Astaire (1899–1987), he also took tap dancing lessons at a neighbor’s home. His interest in dance grew when a friend took him to visit the modern dance school run by Lester Horton, whose dance company (a group of dancers who perform together) was the first in America to admit members of all races. Unsure of what opportunities would be available for him as a dancer, however, Ailey left Horton’s school after one month. After graduating from high school in 1948, Ailey considered becoming a teacher. He entered the University of California in Los Angeles to study languages. When Horton offered him a scholarship in 1949 Ailey returned to the dance school. He left again after one year, however, this time to attend San Francisco State College.

CRY ~ Danced by Dwana Smallwood of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre

History Of Modern Black Dance in America/pt.25