My last visit to NY was a whirlwind. I landed to attend a dance performance, followed by late nite dining, twilight dancing, in-studio instruction, sidewalk dining, and a Broadway show only to repeat with variation. The highlight of my journey was when I acquiesced to take a morning Dunham class after one of those notorious NY nights. I had many years of Dunham dance technique and figured this attempt would be like riding a bike. And it was. The absence of Dunham dancing in my repertoire made me appreciate the strength training, body conditioning routines that Ailey Company members resorted to in training for the season. The endless plie, demi-plie, relève hold is a dynamic, unparallel to any dance technique ever invented. I returned home to teach a Tropical Dance class to ballet students and realized if they were to master the Dunham technique, their ballet form would strengthen, as they acquire the curved spine/rhythmic aesthetic found in many other ethnic dance forms. It was in that instant that I imagined Katherine Dunham’s “aha” moment for her technique. The use of the Ballet point, reconstructed to fit the non European flexed joint accompanied by the tribal drum rhythms of the African Diaspora.
Katherine Dunham revolutionized American dance in the 1930′s by going to the roots of black dance and rituals transforming them into significant artistic choreography that speaks to all. She was a pioneer in the use of folk and ethnic choreography and one of the founders of the anthropological dance movement. She showed the world that African American heritage is beautiful. She completed groundbreaking work on Caribbean and Brazilian dance anthropology as a new academic discipline. She is credited for bringing these Caribbean and African influences to a European-dominated dance world. Katherine Dunham died on May 21 2006 http://www.kdcah.com/katherinedunham/biography.html?submenuheader=1
As I laughed, (instead of crying) my way through the morning’s exercises, I exalted Thank You Katherine Dunham, Thank You!