Katherine Dunham, early 1940s. Promotional artwork by Al Hirschfeld © The Estate of Al Hirschfeld.

at left: Katherine Dunham in "Rara Tonga" from the musical Tropical Revue (1943), choreographed by Dunham. (Photograph from the Dance Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations.)

The grande dame of African-American dance, Katherine Dunham (1909-2006) was born in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. She studied with Mark Turbyfill, Ruth Page, and Ludmilla Speranzeva in addition to studying anthropology at the University of Chicago. In 1935-1936, with support from the Rosenwald Foundation, she spent eighteen months investigating the dance cultures of the Caribbean. This research became the basis for the African-American style she was then developing. Settling in New York, she appeared at the 92nd Street Y and, with her company, took part in the 1940 Broadway hit Cabin in the Sky, choreographed by George Balanchine. In the 1940s her preferred format was the revue, which introduced audiences around the country to the best of African-American dance talent, trained in part at the school she opened in New York, and to African diaspora folklore. Her technique, which drew on movements from the Pacific as well as Africa and the Caribbean, led toward an experience of total rhythmic immersion. In 1966 she settled in East Saint Louis, where she began a long association with Southern Illinois University.