Katherine Dunham

Katherine Dunham (1909-2006) is best known as a dancer, choreographer, director of a dance troop, and one of the most influential and important voices in modern dance. She was also an anthropologist. In the 1930s, she studied at the University of Chicago under Radcliff-Brown, Sapir, and Malinowski. In 1935-1936, she worked in the Caribbean, particularly in Haiti, on African-origin dances, and the role of dance in Vodun rituals. She wrote a Master's thesis, "The Dances of Haiti: A Study of Their Material Aspect, Organization, Form, and Function," but didn't jump through all of the bureaucratic hoops required to formally receive the degree. Recognizing that she could not pursue both her love of dance and her love of anthropology, Dunham chose dance. Her ethnographic work on dances of the Caribbean and Africa, however, inspired her choreography; she is known as the "matriarch and queen mother of Black dance." Her anthropological perspective was also part of her social activism against racism in the U.S. and abroad, and against U.S. foreign policy that was harmful to Caribbean nations.