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The Katherine Dunham Company, a troupe of dancers, singers, actors and musicians, was the first African-American modern dance company.
Founded in Chicago, it grew out of Ballet Nègre, a student troupe founded in 1930 by Katherine Dunham (1909–2006), which later became the Negro Dance Group.
The company had successful runs on Broadway and in other major American cities. In a New York Times review on February 19, 1940, dance critic John Martin wrote of Dunham: "Her performance with her group last Sunday at the Windsor Theatre 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." [1] [2]
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 performers of the day. Dunham alumni include Alvin Ailey, Rosalie King, Frances Davis, Eartha Kitt and Walter Nicks. Classes in Dunham Technique are still taught in New York City at both the 92nd Street YMHA and at the Fashion Institute of Technology, by former company member Dana McBroom-Manno. McBroom-Manno was a featured dancer in the Metropolitan Opera's production of Aida , choreographed by Katherine Dunham, the first African-American choreographer at the Met since Hemsley Winfield set the dances for The Emperor Jones in 1933.
Successful revues featuring the company included the universally acclaimed 1946 production Bal Nègre.
Modern dance in the United States is a form of contemporary dance that was developed in the United States in the 20th century. African American modern dance also developed a distinct style.
Alvin Ailey Jr. 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 Center as havens for nurturing Black artists and expressing the universality of the African-American experience through dance.
Ted Shawn was a pioneer of American modern dance. He created the Denishawn School together with his wife Ruth St. Denis. After their separation he created the all-male company Ted Shawn and His Men Dancers. With his innovative ideas of masculine movement, he was one of the most influential choreographers and dancers of his day. He was also the founder and creator of Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival in Massachusetts, and "was knighted by the King of Denmark for his efforts on behalf of the Royal Danish Ballet."
Pearl Eileen Primus was an American dancer, choreographer and anthropologist. Primus played an important role in the presentation of African dance to American audiences. Early in her career she saw the need to promote African dance as an art form worthy of study and performance. Primus' work was a reaction to myths of savagery and the lack of knowledge about African people. It was an effort to guide the Western world to view African dance as an important and dignified statement about another way of life.
Walter Nicks 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 years.
Katherine Mary Dunham 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 many years. She has been called the "matriarch and queen mother of black dance."
Syvilla Fort was an American dancer, choreographer, and dance teacher. Born in Seattle, she drew on her African-American heritage in her original dance works. American composer John Cage wrote his first piece for prepared piano, Bacchanale (1940), for a dance by Fort. She died from breast cancer at the age of 58.
Jack Cole was an American dancer, choreographer, and theatre director known as "the Father of Theatrical Jazz Dance" for his role in codifying African-American jazz dance styles, as influenced by the dance traditions of other cultures, for Broadway and Hollywood. Asked to describe his style he described it as "urban folk dance".
African-American dance is a form of dance that was created by Africans in the Diaspora, specifically the United States. It has developed within various spaces throughout African-American communities in the United States, rather than studios, schools, or companies. These dances are usually centered on folk and social dance practice, though performance dance often supplies complementary aspects to this. Placing great value on improvisation, these dances are characterized by ongoing change and development. There are a number of notable African-American modern dance companies using African-American cultural dance as an inspiration, among these are the Whitey's Lindy Hoppers, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Dance Theatre of Harlem, and Katherine Dunham Company. Hollywood and Broadway have also provided opportunities for African-American artists to share their work and for the public to support them.
Austin Dafora Horton, also known as Asadata Dafora, was a Sierra Leonean multidisciplinary musician. He was one of the first Africans to introduce African drumming music to the United States, beginning in the early 1930s. His artistic endeavours spanned multiple disciplines, but he is best remembered for his work in dance and music.
Lavinia Williams, who sometimes went by the married name Lavinia Williams Yarborough, was an American dancer and dance educator who founded national schools of dance in several Caribbean countries.
The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT) is a modern dance company based in New York City. It was founded in 1958 by choreographer and dancer Alvin Ailey. It is made up of 32 dancers, led by artistic director Robert Battle and associate artistic director Matthew Rushing.
Beryl Eugenia McBurnie OBE was a Trinidadian dancer. She established the Little Carib Theatre in Woodbrook, Port of Spain, and promoted the culture and arts of Trinidad and Tobago as her life's work. She helped to promote the cultural legitimacy of Trinidad and Tobago that would shift the country into the age independence. McBurnie dedicated her life to dance, becoming one of the greatest influences on modern Trinidadian pop culture.
Talley Beatty was born in Cedar Grove, Louisiana, a section of Shreveport, but grew up in Chicago, Illinois. He is considered one of the greatest of African American choreographers, and also bears the titles dancer, doctor, and dance company director. After studying under Katherine Dunham and Martha Graham, Beatty went on do solo work and choreograph his own works which center on the social issues, experiences, and everyday life of African Americans. Beatty and his technique and style of dancing were both praised and criticized by critics and dancers of his day.
Thelma Beatrice Johnson Streat (1912–1959) was an African-American artist, dancer, and educator. She gained prominence in the 1940s for her art, performance and work to foster intercultural understanding and appreciation.
Modern dance is a broad genre of western concert or theatrical dance which includes 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 centuries. It was considered to have been developed as a rejection of, or rebellion against, classical ballet, and also a way to express social concerns like socioeconomic and cultural factors.
Jean-Léon Destiné was a Haitian-born American dancer and choreographer. He was born in Saint-Marc and moved to the United States with the dance company of Lina Mathon-Blanchet in the early 1940s. He later studied at Howard University. His work, becoming well known in the 1940s, often addressed Haiti's history of resisting colonialism and slavery. He also danced with Katherine Dunham's company and founded a national dance company in Haiti in the late 1940s. Destiné is known as the father of Haitian professional dance.
Katherine Jefferson Flowers (1896–1982) was an African American dancer, choreographer and teacher who in 1944 opened the successful "Flowers School of Dance" in Chicago. She also carried out extensive research on the history of African American dance from the 19th century.
Frances Taylor Davis was an American dancer and actress who was a member of the Katherine Dunham Company, and the first African American ballerina to perform with the Paris Opera Ballet.
Black women have been traditionally underrepresented in ballet. In the 15th and 16th centuries, ballet began in Italian Renaissance courts, where it was largely dominated and influenced by the aristocracy. Ballet later spread to France and was developed under Louis XIV. After the first professional theatrical ballet company, the Paris Opera Ballet, was established in 1669, ballet spread throughout Europe and the rest of the world. Ballet eventually arrived in the United States, and by 1933, the San Francisco Ballet, the first professional ballet company in the United States, was founded.
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