Katherine Dunham

Katherine Dunham, dancer and anthropologist, was one of the first African American women to attend the University of Chicago, where she earned bachelor and doctoral degree in anthropology. She connected with her own cultural roots focusing on dance, traveling throughout the Caribbean on a Rosenwald Fund Fellowship. She created the Dunham Technique, which introduced rhythm as the backbone for modern dance principles. She opened her first dance and theater school in the 1940’s, whose approach was considered radical because it strayed from strictly European technique. This African American centered approach to dance is still practiced today.

As an activist, she raised consciousness about racial inequality by refusing to perform at segregated venues, and protested the forced expatriation of the Haitian boat people by the US government in 1993 by staging a 47-day hunger strike at the age of 82. 

1909-2006, USA