Kathrine's Childhood and Early Life

Albert Dunham, Katherine’s father, moved from Memphis, Tennessee to Illinios to pursue his jazz carreer, while working as a tailor and drycleaner.   Performing at a club one night, he met his soon to be wife, Fanny Taylor, a French-Canadian divorced woman.  They married in 1905, and moved to a surbuban neighborhood to escape the torment from their mix-race marriage.  Four years later, Katherine Dunham was born and raised in Illinios on June 22, 1909.  Because of her biracial parents, her youth was haunted by painful emotional confusions. The Dunham's were among the few a racially mixed families in the American Middle West.  However, Dunham’s neighborhood was divided by race and class, making it difficult to live under a roof with both white and black parents.  She grew up amidst family confusions and a culture in turmoil. 

Katherine's older brother, Albert Jr., and Katherine

Dunham’s Love of Music and Dance

Katherine's life changed dramatically when her mother became ill. She was only four years old when Fanny died.  She and her brother, Albert Jr., we sent to live with their Aunt Lulu.  Here she first was exposed to the joys of music and dance.  Her aunt took her to various productions and performances at local theatres. She watched singers like Bessie Smith in awe, further provoking her passion for the arts.

Her father eventually remarried a schoolteacher from Iowa, Annitte, and they relocated to Joliet. An active Methodist, she began singing and performing for her local Methodist Church.  She started out by only singing gospel songs, but by the age of eight, she broke through that barrier.  In 1918, she shocked elder church members by performing non-religious songs at a cabaret party that she organized to raise money for her church. 

In high school, Dunham began to study ballet with Ludmilla Speranzeva, one of the first ballet teachers to accept black dancer students. At this point, Katherine’s love for art was steadily increasing.

Ludmilla Speranzeva, Katherine’s first ballet teacher

Albert Dunham

However, still trying to cope with his great loss, Katherine’s father, Albert, constantly fought with his new wife. He quickly became violent and abusive with both her and his son.  However, he did not stope there. As Katherine began to grow up, his twisted mind began to have an unhealthy sexual interest in her.

 Eventually Dunham's older brother aided in her escape from her father’s influence. She moved out and began attending the University of Chicago on scholarship, where she studied anthropology and began to teach dance.  During her studies she met many people, including Ruth Page, Langston Hughes, and Mark Turbyfill.  Katherine was challenged to mix her interest in anthropology with her love of dance.  She even wrote a bachelor’s disseration on her findings of the use of dance in primitive ritual.  Along with Turbyfill and Page, she formed the Ballets Negro, the first black concert dance group.  She started her own company a few years later called the Negro Dance Group. 

Research and Legacy of Dunham’s Career

In 1935, Dunham was awarded a Rosenwald Foundation grant, allowing her to study dance in the Caribbean Islands.  Mainly in Haiti and Jamaica, she spent over 18 months researching the roots of African American dance.  She spent a brief time in Jamaica, where she traveled to Accompong. Shortly after, Dunham ventured to Trinidad and Martinique. Haita was the last, and most significant location of her research. She strongly connected with the people and Voodoo religion here. Intrigued by the way of life she was emersed in, she became an initiate of Voodooon, the Haitian danced religion. She witnessed sacrifices and "posessions," when the Loa mounts or takes posession of a person. She was inspired movements members of the community demonstrated under possession. These movements inspired her to create her own technique, incorporating Haitian dance with modern.

After her return in August, she recieved a bachelors degree in social anthropology. Later she got her graduate degree from Southern Illinios University in East St. Louis. Inclusive of photographs, dances, and journal entries, she presented her findings and research to the Rosenwald Foundation.

Fundamental in establishing the rest of her career, she studied African based movement and gained a new perspective and appreciation of African art and dance in America.   She wrote four books documenting her experiences in the Caribbean.  “Journey to Accompong” in 1946, “The Dances of Haiti” in 1947, and “Island Possessed” in 1969.

Paintings, photographs, statues, costumes, decorations, ethnic art pieces, and personal possessions are open for public viewing in thee Kathrine Dunham Museum. Located in St. Louis, Dunham's legacy will live on through this museum that was established to exhibit all of her contributions to both the African American and dance society.

A visitor in Katherine Dunham's museum