The Katherine Dunham Company, a troupe of dancers, singers, actors and musicians, was the first African-American

modern dance Modern dance is a broad genre of western concert or theatrical dance which included dance styles such as ballet, folk, ethnic, religious, and social dancing; and primarily arose out of Europe and the United States in the late 19th and early 20th ...

company. Founded in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, it grew out of Ballet Nègre, a student troupe founded in 1930 by

Katherine Dunham Katherine Mary Dunham (June 22, 1909 – May 21, 2006) was an American dancer, choreographer, anthropologist, and social activist. Dunham had one of the most successful dance careers of the 20th century, and directed her own dance company for ma ...

(1909–2006), which later became the Negro Dance Group. The company had successful runs on

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

and in other major American cities. In a ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' review on February 19, 1940, dance critic John Martin wrote of Dunham: "Her performance with her group last Sunday at the

Windsor Theatre The 48th Street Theatre was a Broadway theatre at 157 West 48th Street in Manhattan. It was built by longtime Broadway producer William A. Brady and designed by architect William Albert Swasey. The venue was also called the Equity 48th Stree ...

may very well become a historic occasion, for certainly never before in all efforts of recent years to establish Negro dance as a serious medium has there been so convincing and authoritative an approach."Molly E. Christie Gonzalez
"Katherine Dunham Technique and Philosophy: A Holistic Dance Pedagogy"
(2015). Dance Master’s Theses. Paper 4. Beginning in the 1940s, Dunham took her troupe on a series of highly acclaimed world tours. The Dunham Company helped launch the career of many

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

performers of the day. Dunham alumni include

Alvin Ailey Alvin Ailey Jr. (January 5, 1931 – December 1, 1989) was an American dancer, director, choreographer, and activist who founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT). He created AAADT and its affiliated Alvin Ailey American Dance Cente ...

, Rosalie King,

Frances Davis Frances Reed Elliott Davis (28 April c. 1882 – 11 May 1965), was an American nurse and community activist. Life Frances Davis was born on 28 April, about 1882, probably in Shelby, North Carolina to a mixed-race family. Her mother died when she ...

Eartha Kitt Eartha Kitt (born Eartha Mae Keith; January 17, 1927 – December 25, 2008) was an American singer and actress known for her highly distinctive singing style and her 1953 recordings of "C'est si bon" and the Christmas novelty song "Santa Ba ...

and

Walter Nicks Walter Nicks (July 26, 1925 – April 3, 2007) was an African-American modern dancer, choreographer, and teacher of jazz and modern dance. He was a certified master teacher of Katherine Dunham technique. He was professionally active for nearly 60 ...

. Classes in Dunham Technique are still taught in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

at both the 92nd Street YMHA and at the

Fashion Institute of Technology The Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) is a public college in New York City. It is part of the State University of New York (SUNY) and focuses on art, business, design, mass communication, and technology connected to the fashion industry. It ...

, by former company member Dana McBroom-Manno. McBroom-Manno was a featured dancer in the

Metropolitan Opera The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is operat ...

's production of ''

Aida ''Aida'' (or ''Aïda'', ) is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni. Set in the Old Kingdom of Egypt, it was commissioned by Cairo's Khedivial Opera House and had its première there on 24 December ...

'', choreographed by Katherine Dunham, the first African-American choreographer at the Met since

Hemsley Winfield Hemsley Winfield (April 20, 1907 – January 15, 1934) was an African-American dancer who created the New Negro Art Theater Dance Group. Early years He was born Osborne Hemsley Winfield to a middle-class, African-American family in Yonkers, New Yo ...

set the dances for ''

The Emperor Jones ''The Emperor Jones'' is a 1920 tragic play by American dramatist Eugene O'Neill that tells the tale of Brutus Jones, a resourceful, self-assured African American and a former Pullman porter, who kills another black man in a dice game, is jailed, ...

'' in 1933. Successful revues featuring the company included the universally acclaimed 1946 production ''Bal Nègre''.

References

External links

"Katherine Dunham on Overcoming 1940s Racism"
Katherine Dunham speaking at a June 6, 2002, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival PillowTalk.

- includes information about the development of her company. * African-American dance Dance companies in the United States {{Dance-stub

See also

References

External links