Katherine Dunham

Katherine Mary Dunham (June 22, 1909 – May 21, 2006) was an American dancer, choreographer, novelist, educator, anthropologist, and social activist who developed the Dunham Technique. Dunham directed her own dance company for many years and had one of the most successful dancing careers in African-American and European theater in the twentieth century. The "matriarch and queen mother of black dance," as she's been dubbed. Dunham got an early bachelor's degree in anthropology while a student at the University of Chicago, where she also performed as a dancer and maintained a dance school. She travelled to the Caribbean to study dance and ethnography after receiving a fellowship. She later returned to graduate school and completed an anthropology master's thesis.

She did not complete the other requirements for that degree, but she knew that performance was her professional calling. Dunham's career peaked in the 1940s and 1950s, when she was well-known in Europe and Latin America, as well as in the United States. "Dancer Katherine the Great," according to the Washington Post. She ran the Katherine Dunham Dance Company for nearly 30 years, making it the sole self-supporting American black dance troupe at the time. She choreographed around ninety individual dances during her long career. Dunham was a pioneer in African-American modern dance as well as a pioneer in the study of ethnochoreology, or dance anthropology. She also created the Dunham Technique, a movement strategy that she used to accompany her dance performances.

• Born: June 22, 1909Chicago, Illinois, U.S
• Died: May 21, 2006 (aged 96)New York City, U.S
• Known for: Modern dancer, choreographer, author, educator, activist