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When I first started at the University of Michigan, I didn’t know what to expect. Madame Penny Godboldo’s class on Dunham technique gave me a sense of groundedness and home. Before class would start, Madame Penny would look her students in the eyes to see where their energy was, then direct the class in a […]
Katherine Dunham (1909–2006) brought African dance aesthetics to the United States, forever influencing modern and jazz dance. She was instrumental in getting respect for Black dancers on the concert dance stage and directed the first self-supported Black dance company. Dunham was born in Illinois, where she developed an interest in dance during high school. At […]
Othella Dallas, one of the last living early members of the Katherine Dunham Company, passed away from lung cancer on November 28 at a nursing home outside of Basel, Switzerland. She was 95. A celebrated dancer, teacher, and jazz and blues musician, Dallas’ studio in Basel is considered to be the only school in Europe […]
When I was a young dancer in Louisville, Kentucky, my ballet teacher used to speak a lot about Merrill Ashley. She brought neoclassical technique to exquisite new heights under Balanchine, and as a technician, she famously paved the way for today’s balletic whiz kids. (Later, when I was a teenager, I was lucky enough to […]
This month, as part of its Encores! series, New York City Center premieres Cabin in the Sky, the 1940 musical choreographed by George Balanchine and Katherine Dunham and performed by an all-black cast. Inspired by George Gershwin’s 1935 musical Porgy and Bess, Cabin in the Sky tells the story of a youth named Little Joe […]
Katherine Dunham The Katherine Dunham Centers for Arts & Humanities needs your help! The East St. Louis, Illinois–based Katherine Dunham Museum is in danger of closing. After the electricity was nearly turned off over an unpaid $486 bill, many generous Dunham fans stepped forward to raise that amount. Now that the museum has faced its […]