Dunham, Katherine (1909–2006)

African-American dancer, choreographer, anthropologist, and social activist. Name variations: (pseudonym) Kaye Dunn. Born Katherine Dunham, June 22, 1909, in Glen Ellyn, Illinois; died May 21, 2006, in New York, NY; dau. of Albert Millard Dunham and Fanny June (Taylor) Dunham; University of Chicago, degree in social anthropology, 1936; m. Jordis McCoo, 1931 (div. 1939); m. John Pratt (costume and set designer), 1939 (died 1986); children: (adopted) Marie-Christine.

Activist dancer who 1st introduced Afro-Caribbean dance to American audiences and created the 1st African-American dance troupe in US; co-founded the Ballet Negre in Chicago (1929) and, later, the Negro Dance Group; traveled to Trinidad, Jamaica, and Haiti (1935–36) and adapted Afro-Caribbean dance rhythms to her own ballets; created the Katherine Dunham Dance Company (1938), which appeared on stage and film to great acclaim (1940s–50s); established the Katherine Dunham Performing Arts Training Center in East St. Louis, Illinois, for urban African-American youth (1967); active in civil-rights movement and social causes, staged a 47-day hunger strike in protest of US treatment of Haitian refugees (1992); choreographed for the stage: Negro Rhapsody, L'Ag'YA, Tropics, Le Jazz Hot, Tropical Revue, Carib Song, Windy City, Bal Negre, Caribbean Rhapsody, Los Indios, Shango, Bambouche, and Aïda for the Metropolitan Opera Company; choreographed for film: Carnival of Myth, Star Spangled Banner, Pardon My Sarong, Mumbo, Cakewalk and Green Mansions.

See also memoir, A Touch of Innocence (Harcourt, 1959); Ruth Beckford, Katherine Dunham: A Biography (Dekker, 1979); and Women in World History.