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Biography

       Katherine Mary Dunham, the Matriarch and Queen Mother of Black Dance, was born June 22, 1909 in Chicago, Illinois. She was the daughter of Albert Millard Dunham, who is black, and Fanny June Dunham, a French-Canadian and Native American. Katherine was moved around a lot during her first ten years of life. First, spent her early childhood in a town near Chicago, until her mother died of old age. Then, she and Albert Jr., her older brother, were sent to their aunt’s house on the South Side of Chicago. Finally, she moved back in with her father and new stepmother in Joliet, Illinois.
         In 1922, Dunham got her first taste of dance when she joined the Terpsichorean Club. Here she studied dance based off the ideas of Jaques-Dalcroze and Rudolf von Laban. At age 14, Dunham experienced her first job directing, producing, and staring in a show for a fundraiser. Six years later, Dunham studied under Ludmilla Speranzeva, one of the first ballet teachers to accept black students. A year later, after studying at a junior college, Dunham and her brother head to the University of Chicago where she decides to major in anthropology and focus on dances of African Diaspora. In Dunham’s early twenties she formed one of the fist Negro ballet companies in America, Ballet Negre. This group performed for a year, but eventually separated. This same year she married one of her dancers, but they also drifted apart.
         After her first attempt to start something new, Dunham came up with the idea of opening a school for young black dancers. In 1933, she achieved her goal and called her new dance school the Negro Dance Group. She got help from Speranzeva through the years because she had many leading roles in ballets and also was still studying anthropology. Two years later, Dunham accepted the Julius Rosenwald Fund to study dance in the West Indies. Haiti, her last stop, was her favorite. Here, she felt close to the culture and the people. Vodun became one of her main fascinations. When she got back to the United States, she received her Ph.B. degree in social anthropology.
The next part of Dunham’s life started with an appearance at the Young Men’s Hebrew Association. Here she starred with dancers like Edna Guy, Alison Burroughs, and Talley Beatty. She also choreographed many ballets such as: L’Ag’Ya, A las Montanas, Barrelhouse and Son. In 1939, Dunham begins her film career with Carnival of Rhythm and started in many other films such as: Star-Spangled Rhythm, Stormy Weather, Casbah, Boote E Risposta, and Mambo.
In 1945, in Manhattan, Dunham opened The Dunham School of Dance and Theater where dance, humanities, philosophy, languages, drama, and speech were all studied. During this time, Dunham stayed very active in politics. She never gave into the game of segregation. She was always fighting hotels, restaurants and theaters. She had many lawsuits against individuals, theaters, and hotels. She even had Brazil’s president apologize to her! To get her point across, Dunham had an hour-long ballet about lynching, Southland, but only performed in Chile and Paris.
         Dunham’s health caused her to reorganize and split up her company. Yet, she never gave up. Dunham opened up Bambouche, a Broadway production, which included fourteen dancers, singers, musicians and part of her company. She also became Met’s first black choreographer when she reproduced Aida. In 1967, Dunham took action in the ghettos of St. Louis and opened the Performing Arts Training Center. This reached out to the youth and senior citizens. Ten years later, she opened a museum full of her life’s artifacts.
         All through the 80’s, Dunham received many awards including: Albert Schweitzer Music Award, Kennedy Center Honor’s Award, Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award and a spot in the Hall of Fame of the National Museum of Dance in Saratoga Springs.
At age 82, Dunham still was still a focus in the world when she had a 47-day fast in protest to the United States deportation of Haitian boat-refugees fleeing to the U.S. Finally, she agreed to end her fast when Aristide visited her and asked her to stop.
         On May 21, 2006, Dunham passed away, but she will never be forgotten. She was an amazing choreographer, dancer, teacher and anthropologist. She never gave up on her dreams and beliefs. Katherine Dunham broke the stereotype and exceeded all the labels given to her and many other African Americans.