Jazz Dance: A History of the Roots and Branches

12. Katherine Dunham’s Mark on Jazz Dance

12 Katherine Dunham’s Mark on Jazz Dance Saroya Corbett Katherine Dunham (1909–2006) is revered as one of the great pillars of American dance history. Her world-renowned modern dance company exposed audiences to the diversity of dance, and her schools brought dance training and education to a variety of populations sharing her passion and commitment to dance as a medium of cultural communication. Often recognized for her research in the Caribbean and on African dance traditions, Dunham’s research also extended to black dance traditions of America. Her research in American black dance traditions unearthed and contributed to the foundations of jazz dance and black vernacular movement vocabularies. Anthropological Approach to Dance The foundation for Katherine Dunham’s work and inquiry is her anthropological studies. Dunham received her degree in anthropology from the University of Chicago in 1936 during a time when the anthropology department was new, fresh, and on the cutting edge of research. Her professors and mentors were critical to the development of anthropology: Robert Redfield , Melville Herskovits, Edward Spair, A.R. Radcliffe-Brown, Bronislaw Malinowski, and W. Lloyd Warner.1 It was during her time at the University of Chicago that Dunham developed an interest in the dances of the Caribbean , which had been mostly ignored by anthropologists up until this time.2 Within this environment, Dunham went on to receive a Julius Rosenwald 89 The Rosenwald fellowship solidified Dunham’s lifelong focus on the role and functionality of dance in culture. Her research and choreographic interests intersected, establishing the research-to-performance method of her work. Dunham’s research material was the basis for her choreography, as she inserted her artistic sensibilities to expand beyond just producing folk art. The African diaspora was a major theme in her work throughout her choreographic career, and as scholar VèVè Clark adds, Dunham was the “repository of black dance of both North America and the Caribbean.”4 As ethnography is a researcher’s written account of his or her field experiences , Dunham’s performances were firsthand accounts of her research. Her “performed ethnographies” were designed to educate her audiences about diverse cultures with the intentions of interrogating pejorative assumptions labeling these cultures as uncivilized and inferior.5 In her performances, a cultural memory was enacted onstage, exposing centuries of history for audiences to witness. In Clark’s article “Performing the Memory of Difference in Afro-Caribbean Dance,” she employs lieux de mémoire (sites of memory) from French revolutionary scholarship to explain Dunham’s use of cultural memory. Clark explains, “Dunham’s research became the basis for character dances and ballets, all of which demonstrated her extensive knowledge of dance forms re-created from African diaspora memory. When the dance steps, music, and other cultural forms were transformed for stage representations , they became lieux de mémoire, reworkings and restatements of historical danced events whose memory Dunham had also preserved in writing or on film.”6 Forging Racial Understandings and Navigating Discrimination The Dunham Company performed and toured for twenty years before the social movements of the 1960s. Racism and racial discrimination were an accepted social policy, and Dunham confronted racism on and off stage. By Dunham’s own account, her audiences were nine-tenths white and one-tenth black. The visibility of her performed ethnographies exposed her majority white audiences to these cultural dance memories. A cross-viewing was enacted as audiences were exposed to cultural memories and social identities different from their own cultural and social understanding.7 Additionally, racism followed Dunham and her company through their travels. They were frequently denied hotel accommodations, restaurant service , and rehearsal space and were forced to live in unsuitable conditions. The Dunham company often endured performances to segregated audiences.8 After a performance at a Louisville, Kentucky, theater in 1944, Dunham came out and informed the audience that her company would not return until the Katherine Dunham’s Mark on Jazz Dance · 91 audience was racially integrated.9 This same conviction continued as Dunham produced the work Southland in 1951, which protested the lynching of black men in the South. Dunham proceeded with performing Southland in Chile after being instructed by U.S. officials not to perform the dance.10 Dunham ’s defiance and resistance to prejudice and discrimination along with her will to educate defined her character and the impetus of her work. Providing Context and Exposing Early Jazz Dance Vocabularies After returning from...