NEWS FOR WOMEN KATHERINE DUNHAM “DANCING-SCIENTIST”

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28250, 11 April 1957, Page 2

NEWS FOR WOMEN KATHERINE DUNHAM “DANCING-SCIENTIST”

What is it about Katherine Dunham that makes her the most remarkable phenomenon in modern theatre? Those, closest to her say it is her passion for perfection.

Katherine Dunham is an anthropologist, whose valuable research work into the dances .of primitive people brought her an invitation to address members of the Royal Anthropological Institute in London, nine years ago. Her talents as a dancer and choreographer have made her company, which she administers with iron-rule, one of the most famous in the world. Some of her paintings have been exhibited in Milan, though she has never had a lesson in putting a brush to canvas. She speaks seven languages and she can cook with the | best of chefs.

Her legs are said to be insured for £lll,OOO. Sometimes she is called “the dancing scientist,” but this is a term too cold and detached to fit her vivid personality, which is expressed throughout her exotic dancing. Her art too, is difficult to define precisely. It consists of dance, song and drama, but is not ballet, opera or revue. Part Negro

Born of a Malagache Negro father and a French-Canadian mother, Katherine Dunham studied ballet at school and when a student at the University of Chicago held dancing classes to supplement her . income. While studying anthropology she found that she could learn most about primitive peoples from their dances and so began for her the union of dancing and science. On a fellowship she went to the West Indies for research and studied the survivals of orginaj African cultures.

Back in the United States Miss Dunham gave a one-night performance of West Indian dances in New York and stayed on for 13 weeks with her show. Success came quickly. She made films in Hollywood and produced musical revues on Broadway, published books and recorded music. Growth Of Company

With a small dance group, which she financed herself, Miss Dunham alternated between night club engagements and the Holly-

wood Bowl to keep herself before the public. From this small beginning her company, which has now been in existence for 20 years, has become one of the most fabulous in show business. Exacting as she is, Miss Dunham’s cast are devoted to her. Her three leading dancers have been with her 18, 15 and 12 years respectively. She insists that her dancers must not only strive for perfection in their skill, but that they must also have a thorough grounding in aesthetics and music. When it comes to the primitive ritual dances they must know what the motions mean to the natives from whom tk»:y are borrowed. Art First Ardently devoted to the cause of the coloured people, Miss Dunham refuses to use her art directly as racial propaganda. Art must come first; propaganda is only incidental, she has said many times. In her company she has dancers, singers and musicians from Argentina, Brazil, West Indies, Cuba and many other countries. Her secretary is Scottish, her business manager Chinese, and her stage director is Australian. Since she has been in the North Island Miss Dunham has taken a deep interest in Maori dancing, though she has not yet said if she intends to incorporate this form into her repertoire. l£asic Rhythm Dancing, she believes, is the most important emotional outlet of the primitive peoples and her study of their techniques has brought a new vocabulary of dance to the theatre. To the classicism of the ballet, the virtuosity of Spanish dancing, the sinuous stylisation of Oriental dancing, the abstraction of modern dancing, she has added the fundamental vigour of primitive dancing, with its awareness of basic rhythmic movements and of life itself. Miss Dunham is married to an American, John Pratt, who designs the costumes and scenery for the company. They have one daughter, Marie Christine Dun-ham-Pratt, who goes to school in Switzerland and can- already speak four languages at the age of 10.