Every aspect of Katherine Dunhams life played a significant part in creating the Dunham Technique. The experiences that Katherine encountered while growing up gave her the platform to pursue a successful life as a dancer and pioneer of her own dance technique. This Technique went beyond the common definition of dance. It was an innovative venture of an individual who had a comprehensive understanding of the creative lengths that go beyond the confinements of culture or society (Gross Samantha, Dancer Katherine Dunham Dies at Age 96 Associated Press Writers June 2006).
One experience, however, which stands out as the main turning point in Dunhams life, which ultimately led her to the creation of her technique, was when in 1935, Dunham had the opportunity to travel to the Caribbean and live amongst the Haitian people (Legg, J., 2008). Having lived in Haiti for long periods at a time, becoming socially and culturally integrated amongst the Haitians, and even being baptized into the Voodoo religion deeply influenced Dunham as an artist (Ebony, Feb 2006, p. 104).
Thereafter, she came back to the United States with new perspectives on both dance and life. From the flexing of the torso and spine, the isolation of the hips and ribs, to the articulated pelvis whirling to the polyrhythmic sounds of the drums, this technique went beyond the common definition of dance in America during the 1940s and 1950s. Dunham had combined the movement she had observed and come to deeply admire in Haiti and combined it with ballet and modern, creating the Dunham Technique(Ebony, Feb 2006, p. 104).
Since she was a child, Katherine Dunham had been known to push boundaries. She was one of the first Black students of the University of Chicago, although she had begun dancing long before she enrolled there to pursue Anthropology and dance (Ebony, Feb 2006, p. 104). This is a clear indication of her love for dance that prompted her brother, Albert Millard Dunham Jr. whom she joined at the University of Chicago, to open a group, Cube Theatre, which would help Katherine improve her performance abilities (Aschenbrenner, Joyce Dancing a Life 2002 pg 22). She wanted to nurture her talent despite the restrictions that would have come up due to her lack of expertise training.
During her life at the University of Chicago, Katherine tried to fight the social boundaries that had been erected for a long time. The University did not inhibit the students creativity and allowed them to undertake whatever projects students felt would boost their outlook towards life and the society at large. It is in relation to this that Katherine did not allow the difference in culture or status in the society to bog her down, and instead, she had a close relationship with her teachers and mentors who encouraged her to take her ability to the next level (Aschenbrenner, Joyce Dancing a Life 2002 pg 23-26).
The young dancer was often bogged down by the racial discrimination which was prevalent at the time in the University in terms of who can learn what and in the world of professional dancers, in terms of who can do what (Allen, Z, 2001, Ebony, Feb 2006). The 1930s was a time when most communities in the world had not embraced the fact that it was possible for individuals with other culturally different backgrounds to fit, and even in certain circumstances, do better than people of the said culture.
Her teachers in the University knew quite well that Katherine Dunham could face prejudices if she pursued the methods that were greatly engraved in the minds of the locals as being for the European and American dancers. They knew that she would be criticized if she wanted to come out on top as the best ballet dancer of that time. Instead her teachers gave her an opportunity to perfect as many styles as she could and come out as an all rounder (Aschenbrenner Joyce, Dancing a Life 2002). Dunhams early dance training in Joliet, IL, included ballet as well as East Indian, Javanese and Balinese dance traditions (Rose, A., 2008)
It was hard for Katherine Dunham despite her profound dancing ability to be accepted as a competent dancer especially with the archaic beliefs that were still strongly held. It was widely established that the African Americans did not possess the dynamism and physique to make a ballet dance come out complete with the arching of the spine and toes (Dunham, K, Kaiso, 2005). This is the reason why Katherine Dunham worked towards creating a style that she could dance to without people criticizing her moves when the spine did not bend as they thought it should or when her hands didnt sway to the set rules of movement all constituted within social boundaries. She must have known that with her own dance style it would be possible to join all these warring social groups. (Aschenbrenner Joyce, Dancing a Life 2002 pg 27).
Katherine did not immediately come up with her technique. She first formed a dancing group to help her gain more expertise. She also went ahead researching about popular dance techniques that were prevalent at the time. In 1935, Katherine Dunham got an opportunity to extend her Anthropological research through sponsorship by the Julius Rosenwald and Guggenheim Foundations. She was given a fellowship grant to go ahead and study the dancing styles of the Caribbean regions of Jamaica, Martinique, Trinidad and Haiti (Dunham, K. Island Possessed, p. 147, Legg, J., 2008). She left to conduct the research in the Caribbean. The study was to involve understanding primitive dancing culture and also the rituals that the communities in the Caribbean countries were conducting (Dunham, K., Island Possessed p. 149).
It was a trying time for her to balance academic sense of anthropology which required her to conduct the research intelligently and her love for the emotive feelings that dance evoked in her (Performing Arts Encyclopedia The Katherine Dunham Collection, The Library of Congress).
Out of the four countries where she conducted her research, Haiti was the one country in the Caribbean that made an impact in Katherines life as an anthropologist and a dancer. The cultural diversity fascinated her and she wanted to learn more about the Haiti people. Katherine spent her stay in Haiti discovering what influenced the emotive, vigorous dances that the Haitians demonstrated.
Dunham found that of all the Caribbean islands, thepurestforms of African dance were in Haiti. She theorized that this was because Haiti had won its independence as a nation long before any other country had freed its African slaves (Dunham, K., Island Possessed). She knew that there was more to the dancing in Haiti than mere movement. She wanted to learn more about what led to these intense styles and what they represented in the life of the community. The fact that the people were facing colonial supervision and they used dance as a way of expressing their feelings without letting the authority see as if they were down playing them attracted Katherine Dunhams attention (Dunham, K., Island Possessed).
Paula Durbin , a journalist studying Dunhams life wrote Haitians ground their hips, circled their haunches, executed mesmerizing pelvic movements and shrugged, a ritual called zepaules, accenting their shoulders. It was all fundamental African technique, identical to what is done in, say, Dakar, and on which variations persist in African-American communities everywhere, (Americas Magazine, Feb 1996)
The Haitian dancing styles were in essence influenced by the political upheavals the community had encountered. The dances were very vigorous, characterized by a lot of body movements involving the hips, pelvic and shoulders. Dunham fell in love with Haiti and its people, and later bought a home and opened a dance school and medical clinic on the island (Answers.com, Ebony, Feb 2006). She eventually became so engaged in the culture of the island and became such a part of the people there that they accepted her as a part of their island and even admitted her into their practices of the sacred Voodoo relgion. This was a religion that integrated most of the African ways of worship that were brought by the slaves from African countries with the Christian beliefs that the slaves found in the Caribbean country (Wikipedia, Haitian Voodoo, 2010).
She soon became a priestess of this religion and was fascinated by the dances that the Haitians performed as a part of their ritualistic practices (Dunham, K., Island Possessed, University of Chicago Press, 1994, Norment, L., A dance Legend with a mission to service, Ebony Magazine January 1985 pgs 48, 52, 54). With such grounding in the intense dancing culture of the Haitian people Katherine was able to get enough information for her anthropological thesis and in the process craft a dancing technique that incorporated the styles she had learnt in Chicago like Ballet with the styles she discovered in Haiti.
The Dunham Technique was a new thing to the dance world. Everything moved, wrote Durbin in her Americas Magazine article, Shoulderstwitched, torsos arched, hips popped. It intermingled dancing and the beating of African drums which synthesized with the dancers. Martha Graham, the reigning dancing queen of the time as well as the founder of Modern Dance, proclaimed Dunham as the highpriestessof thepelvic girdle.
However, she did not do away with her Ballet training. Instead she brought particular elements of it into her technique (Norment Lynn, A dance Legend with a mission to service Ebony Magazine January 1985 pgs 48, 52, 54). The main characteristics of the Dunham Technique were in the intense movements a dancer had to portray. In the practice sessions, the students would go through a series of exercises to help their bodies become flexible. It was then followed by lessons of the routine her students were supposed to memorize.
Her technique also involved breathing exercises to help the dancers bring out the real emotions, the right feeling exhibited by the Haitian community and the Europe-American Ballet steps, Katherine borrowed from.
The result was an entirely new art form, called the Dunham technique or the Afro-Caribbean dance. In 1940, she formed The Dunham Dance Company, an all-black dance troupe, to perform her technique. The company gave its first show in New York City and performed a revue called Tropics and le Jazz Hot (Allen, Z., 2001). Dunhams LAg YA was another routine which brought out the Katherine Dunham technique. This is a dance she had choreographed for the Federal Theater Project in Chicago. It involved all the aspects of the technique from drummers to the costumes that represent a village kind of setting (Allen, Z., 2001). She brought back the dance styles she had learnt in Haiti and taught it to her community. The stage setting, costumes and movement all borrowed a lot from her encounter in the Caribbean country.
The Dunham Technique has many styles under it which all require a good understanding that energy is important in making the right moves. The shango is a perfect example of what emotive vigorous dancing is all about. It needs energy to arch the spine and ground the hips as recommended (Dunham, K., Library of Congress). The Dunham method represented the coming together of the popular Western dancing styles with the Voodoo ritual and other dancing methods common in the Caribbean Nations (Ebony Magazine The Legendary Dunham Katherine February 2006 pg 102-106). Dunham brought out the idea that it is possible to innovate what an individual has and wants to share with the world. She had the ability and vehemently went out to seek a way of achieving her dream without following the same old set of methods established by society and societal norms and discovered that the world was full of unresearched techniques and unchartered territories.
Katherine tried to unite all social classes in the society by showing that it was possible to share a stage and even a dance style without making one party feel inferior or superior. Katherine Dunhams creative style was good enough to fight the social segregation that people showed and at the same time was instrumental for her to state her view on all matters by choreographing dances that explained her political stand on issues. (Allen, Z., 2001)
It is because of this relentless effort that she left a dance legacy and was awarded multiple times throughout her life. Her title as the Matriarch and Queen Mother of Black Dance would always stand testimony to the hard work and innovation she had brought about to the global dancing scene. (Dunham, K., Veve A. Clark and Sarah East Johnson Kaiso Writings by and about Katherine Dunham Madison University of Wisconsin, 2005)
One experience, however, which stands out as the main turning point in Dunhams life, which ultimately led her to the creation of her technique, was when in 1935, Dunham had the opportunity to travel to the Caribbean and live amongst the Haitian people (Legg, J., 2008). Having lived in Haiti for long periods at a time, becoming socially and culturally integrated amongst the Haitians, and even being baptized into the Voodoo religion deeply influenced Dunham as an artist (Ebony, Feb 2006, p. 104).
Thereafter, she came back to the United States with new perspectives on both dance and life. From the flexing of the torso and spine, the isolation of the hips and ribs, to the articulated pelvis whirling to the polyrhythmic sounds of the drums, this technique went beyond the common definition of dance in America during the 1940s and 1950s. Dunham had combined the movement she had observed and come to deeply admire in Haiti and combined it with ballet and modern, creating the Dunham Technique(Ebony, Feb 2006, p. 104).
Since she was a child, Katherine Dunham had been known to push boundaries. She was one of the first Black students of the University of Chicago, although she had begun dancing long before she enrolled there to pursue Anthropology and dance (Ebony, Feb 2006, p. 104). This is a clear indication of her love for dance that prompted her brother, Albert Millard Dunham Jr. whom she joined at the University of Chicago, to open a group, Cube Theatre, which would help Katherine improve her performance abilities (Aschenbrenner, Joyce Dancing a Life 2002 pg 22). She wanted to nurture her talent despite the restrictions that would have come up due to her lack of expertise training.
During her life at the University of Chicago, Katherine tried to fight the social boundaries that had been erected for a long time. The University did not inhibit the students creativity and allowed them to undertake whatever projects students felt would boost their outlook towards life and the society at large. It is in relation to this that Katherine did not allow the difference in culture or status in the society to bog her down, and instead, she had a close relationship with her teachers and mentors who encouraged her to take her ability to the next level (Aschenbrenner, Joyce Dancing a Life 2002 pg 23-26).
The young dancer was often bogged down by the racial discrimination which was prevalent at the time in the University in terms of who can learn what and in the world of professional dancers, in terms of who can do what (Allen, Z, 2001, Ebony, Feb 2006). The 1930s was a time when most communities in the world had not embraced the fact that it was possible for individuals with other culturally different backgrounds to fit, and even in certain circumstances, do better than people of the said culture.
Her teachers in the University knew quite well that Katherine Dunham could face prejudices if she pursued the methods that were greatly engraved in the minds of the locals as being for the European and American dancers. They knew that she would be criticized if she wanted to come out on top as the best ballet dancer of that time. Instead her teachers gave her an opportunity to perfect as many styles as she could and come out as an all rounder (Aschenbrenner Joyce, Dancing a Life 2002). Dunhams early dance training in Joliet, IL, included ballet as well as East Indian, Javanese and Balinese dance traditions (Rose, A., 2008)
It was hard for Katherine Dunham despite her profound dancing ability to be accepted as a competent dancer especially with the archaic beliefs that were still strongly held. It was widely established that the African Americans did not possess the dynamism and physique to make a ballet dance come out complete with the arching of the spine and toes (Dunham, K, Kaiso, 2005). This is the reason why Katherine Dunham worked towards creating a style that she could dance to without people criticizing her moves when the spine did not bend as they thought it should or when her hands didnt sway to the set rules of movement all constituted within social boundaries. She must have known that with her own dance style it would be possible to join all these warring social groups. (Aschenbrenner Joyce, Dancing a Life 2002 pg 27).
Katherine did not immediately come up with her technique. She first formed a dancing group to help her gain more expertise. She also went ahead researching about popular dance techniques that were prevalent at the time. In 1935, Katherine Dunham got an opportunity to extend her Anthropological research through sponsorship by the Julius Rosenwald and Guggenheim Foundations. She was given a fellowship grant to go ahead and study the dancing styles of the Caribbean regions of Jamaica, Martinique, Trinidad and Haiti (Dunham, K. Island Possessed, p. 147, Legg, J., 2008). She left to conduct the research in the Caribbean. The study was to involve understanding primitive dancing culture and also the rituals that the communities in the Caribbean countries were conducting (Dunham, K., Island Possessed p. 149).
It was a trying time for her to balance academic sense of anthropology which required her to conduct the research intelligently and her love for the emotive feelings that dance evoked in her (Performing Arts Encyclopedia The Katherine Dunham Collection, The Library of Congress).
Out of the four countries where she conducted her research, Haiti was the one country in the Caribbean that made an impact in Katherines life as an anthropologist and a dancer. The cultural diversity fascinated her and she wanted to learn more about the Haiti people. Katherine spent her stay in Haiti discovering what influenced the emotive, vigorous dances that the Haitians demonstrated.
Dunham found that of all the Caribbean islands, thepurestforms of African dance were in Haiti. She theorized that this was because Haiti had won its independence as a nation long before any other country had freed its African slaves (Dunham, K., Island Possessed). She knew that there was more to the dancing in Haiti than mere movement. She wanted to learn more about what led to these intense styles and what they represented in the life of the community. The fact that the people were facing colonial supervision and they used dance as a way of expressing their feelings without letting the authority see as if they were down playing them attracted Katherine Dunhams attention (Dunham, K., Island Possessed).
Paula Durbin , a journalist studying Dunhams life wrote Haitians ground their hips, circled their haunches, executed mesmerizing pelvic movements and shrugged, a ritual called zepaules, accenting their shoulders. It was all fundamental African technique, identical to what is done in, say, Dakar, and on which variations persist in African-American communities everywhere, (Americas Magazine, Feb 1996)
The Haitian dancing styles were in essence influenced by the political upheavals the community had encountered. The dances were very vigorous, characterized by a lot of body movements involving the hips, pelvic and shoulders. Dunham fell in love with Haiti and its people, and later bought a home and opened a dance school and medical clinic on the island (Answers.com, Ebony, Feb 2006). She eventually became so engaged in the culture of the island and became such a part of the people there that they accepted her as a part of their island and even admitted her into their practices of the sacred Voodoo relgion. This was a religion that integrated most of the African ways of worship that were brought by the slaves from African countries with the Christian beliefs that the slaves found in the Caribbean country (Wikipedia, Haitian Voodoo, 2010).
She soon became a priestess of this religion and was fascinated by the dances that the Haitians performed as a part of their ritualistic practices (Dunham, K., Island Possessed, University of Chicago Press, 1994, Norment, L., A dance Legend with a mission to service, Ebony Magazine January 1985 pgs 48, 52, 54). With such grounding in the intense dancing culture of the Haitian people Katherine was able to get enough information for her anthropological thesis and in the process craft a dancing technique that incorporated the styles she had learnt in Chicago like Ballet with the styles she discovered in Haiti.
The Dunham Technique was a new thing to the dance world. Everything moved, wrote Durbin in her Americas Magazine article, Shoulderstwitched, torsos arched, hips popped. It intermingled dancing and the beating of African drums which synthesized with the dancers. Martha Graham, the reigning dancing queen of the time as well as the founder of Modern Dance, proclaimed Dunham as the highpriestessof thepelvic girdle.
However, she did not do away with her Ballet training. Instead she brought particular elements of it into her technique (Norment Lynn, A dance Legend with a mission to service Ebony Magazine January 1985 pgs 48, 52, 54). The main characteristics of the Dunham Technique were in the intense movements a dancer had to portray. In the practice sessions, the students would go through a series of exercises to help their bodies become flexible. It was then followed by lessons of the routine her students were supposed to memorize.
Her technique also involved breathing exercises to help the dancers bring out the real emotions, the right feeling exhibited by the Haitian community and the Europe-American Ballet steps, Katherine borrowed from.
The result was an entirely new art form, called the Dunham technique or the Afro-Caribbean dance. In 1940, she formed The Dunham Dance Company, an all-black dance troupe, to perform her technique. The company gave its first show in New York City and performed a revue called Tropics and le Jazz Hot (Allen, Z., 2001). Dunhams LAg YA was another routine which brought out the Katherine Dunham technique. This is a dance she had choreographed for the Federal Theater Project in Chicago. It involved all the aspects of the technique from drummers to the costumes that represent a village kind of setting (Allen, Z., 2001). She brought back the dance styles she had learnt in Haiti and taught it to her community. The stage setting, costumes and movement all borrowed a lot from her encounter in the Caribbean country.
The Dunham Technique has many styles under it which all require a good understanding that energy is important in making the right moves. The shango is a perfect example of what emotive vigorous dancing is all about. It needs energy to arch the spine and ground the hips as recommended (Dunham, K., Library of Congress). The Dunham method represented the coming together of the popular Western dancing styles with the Voodoo ritual and other dancing methods common in the Caribbean Nations (Ebony Magazine The Legendary Dunham Katherine February 2006 pg 102-106). Dunham brought out the idea that it is possible to innovate what an individual has and wants to share with the world. She had the ability and vehemently went out to seek a way of achieving her dream without following the same old set of methods established by society and societal norms and discovered that the world was full of unresearched techniques and unchartered territories.
Katherine tried to unite all social classes in the society by showing that it was possible to share a stage and even a dance style without making one party feel inferior or superior. Katherine Dunhams creative style was good enough to fight the social segregation that people showed and at the same time was instrumental for her to state her view on all matters by choreographing dances that explained her political stand on issues. (Allen, Z., 2001)
It is because of this relentless effort that she left a dance legacy and was awarded multiple times throughout her life. Her title as the Matriarch and Queen Mother of Black Dance would always stand testimony to the hard work and innovation she had brought about to the global dancing scene. (Dunham, K., Veve A. Clark and Sarah East Johnson Kaiso Writings by and about Katherine Dunham Madison University of Wisconsin, 2005)
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