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“Katherine Dunham: Beyond the Dance” exhibition honors the life of the late dancer, anthropologist

Untitled portrait of Katherine Dunham painted by American artist Werner Philipp. Oil on Canvas, 1943.  “Katherine Dunham: The Exhibition” is open daily at the Missouri History Museum. Tickets cost $5 for students. (Used with permission of the Missouri History Museum)
Untitled portrait of Katherine Dunham painted by American artist Werner Philipp. Oil on Canvas, 1943. “Katherine Dunham: The Exhibition” is open daily at the Missouri History Museum. Tickets cost $5 for students. (Used with permission of the Missouri History Museum)

“Every person who has a germ of artistry seeks to recreate and present an impression of universal human experience.”

This profound quotation of the late Katherine Dunham, inscribed on a wall directly across from the entrance of the ‘Katherine Dunham: Beyond the Dance’ exhibition, greets the exhibit’s browsers. Truly, Katherine Dunham’s entire being, rather than a mere germ of hers, contained overwhelming artistry. Her work did not just present an impression of human experience, it defined it.
Beside the quotation sits a striking portrait, an oil-on-canvas gem, created by the American artist Werner Philipp in 1943, of the speaker herself. Philipp, having painted Dunham as if she had just come off the stage and was taking a moment to reflect and rest, truly evokes the spirit of her bold charisma and modest genius.
Organized and presented by the Missouri History Museum, the ‘Beyond the Dance’ exhibition showcases objects donated by Dunham to the MHM collection in 1991 and honors what would have been her 100th birthday this year.
Katherine Dunham, dubbed “La Grande Katherine” in Europe and parts of Latin America and “Dance’s Katherine the Great” by ‘The Washington Post’, is widely recognized as an American dancer. However, Dunham also was an author, teacher, choreographer, anthropologist, cultural advisor, and pioneer.
The exhibition is organized into four different groups – a biography section that chronicles the life of Dunham, and three sections that express the cultural influences (Afro-Caribbean, African, and American) from which Dunham garnered inspiration.  She integrated these influences with classical European ballet to create a new dance form known famously as the Dunham Technique.
Dunham was born in 1909 just outside of Chicago to an African-American father and a French-Canadian mother. Dunham did not formerly study dance until her teen years, though she grew up among the arts. Her parents were accomplished musicians, her uncle was a vocal coach, and her cousins were avid fans of the theatre. Dunham’s brother convinced her to enroll in The University of Chicago, where he was attending school. She received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in social anthropology shortly after the program began. Dunham was the first to revolutionize the study of Dance Anthropology.
Dunham continued to also focus on the study and practice of dance throughout the course of her undergraduate studies. In 1930, while in Chicago, Dunham formed the ‘Ballet Negre’, one of the first black ballet companies in the nation. In 1933, she opened her first dance school in Chicago, the Negro Dance Group, for young black dancers. In 1939, she became the dance director of the New York Labor Stage, and six years later she opened the Dunham School of Dance in New York.
Dunham was later awarded a Rosenwald Travel Fellowship, which provided her the opportunity to combine her two passions of anthropology and dance, conducting fieldwork regarding African ritual dance in Jamaica, Trinidad, Martinique, and Haiti. Especially fascinated by Haitian dance rituals, Dunham made them the focus of her master’s thesis, “Dances of Haiti: Their Social Organization, Classification, Form, and Function.” The thesis was published in English, French, and Spanish. Dunham has written several books, including ‘“ourney to Accompong” (1946), “Dances of Haiti” (1947), “Touch of Innocence”(1959), and “Island Possessed”(1969) documenting and narrating her combined studies of anthropology and dance throughout her travels.
Dunham also choreographed several film productions such as the Hollywood movie Green Mansions starring Anthony Perkins and Audrey Hepburn. She also starred in many films herself, often with her traveling dance troupe, the ‘Katherine Dunham Dance Troupe’. One such example is the classic film “Stormy Weather”. In 1974, the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame recognized Katherine Dunham for her extensive body of work in the film industry.
While Katherine Dunham’s Dance Troupe did tour around the world, Dunham also appeared in numerous productions on Broadway, such as ‘Cabin in the Sky’, ‘Carib Song’, ‘Windy City’ and ‘Choros’.
Truly, with such biographical details in mind, one could accurately comprehend the genuine reason behind the exhibition’s title ‘Beyond the Dance’. Dunham’s extensive list of interests, passions, and accomplishments truly transcends the mistaken reputation of a mere dancer. Seemingly, the exhibition’s central mission is to promote this conclusion.
The heart of the exhibition truly lays in the 37 costumes on display that Dunham and the members of the Katherine Dunham Dance Company wore. Within each cultural segment of the exhibition (African, Afro-Caribbean, and American), costumes from performances and ballets that derive their plots and settings from those specific global locations are displayed. Designed by renowned Canadian theatrical set and costume designer John Pratt (who was also Dunham’s husband of 45 years), each costume was meticulously crafted. With vibrant colors, intricate stitching, and authentically crafted designs, each costume could be dubbed a work of art without having been seen on “La Grande Katherine” herself. The continuity of the masterful quality of the costumes was evident, considering Pratt became the sole set and costume designer for Dunham’s dance company after their marriage. Studying each costume, one could grasp Dunham’s passion for global cultures and dance styles.
Another highlight of the exhibition was the various anthropological objects scattered throughout the sections. Each artifact was a part of Dunham’s vast collection that began while her dance company was in Paris in the 1940’s. One such object is an impressive flag depicted spirits, or “loa” from the Haitian tribe called the Vodun. While Dunham lived in Haiti, she was inducted into the Vodun tribe which helped her gain access to rituals and dances unavailable to outsiders. The beautifully crafted flag shows Dunham’s own loa, “Danballah”. Each member of the Vodun tribe was assigned a personal loa. Throughout the exhibition, other items from Dunham’s personal anthropological collection are showcased, including masks, flags, and paintings.
Perhaps the most poignant section of the exhibition, especially to St. Louisans, is the American cultural section, the final area. The words of Miss Dunham are displayed on the wall of the section. “There have been three stages of education in my life, The University of Chicago, the world, and East St. Louis.”
In 1964, Dunham moved to settle in East St. Louis, where she was an artist-in-residence at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. In 1967, a collaboration between Dunham and investor and architect Buckminster Fuller led to the founding of the Performing Arts Training Center (PATC) in East St. Louis. The Center sought to combat poverty with training in the arts and humanities for young children. In 1979 Dunham also opened the Katherine Dunham Dynamic Museum. Still in operation, the museum features dance seminars and performances, holds original costumes worn by Dunham and displays many of her paintings, musical instruments, and artifacts collected during her travels.
This area of the exhibition focused on Dunham’s experience in East St. Louis exhibits photos of dancers practicing at the center and numerous programs from various events where the members of the company performed, including the 1970 White House Conference on Children and Youth.
A creative addition to the exhibition is the large section devoted to Dunham’s film career, including film scenes, photos, and posters. This section added life to the exhibition, as two exhibition-browsers actually started dancing along with Miss Dunham in the Italian film ‘Mambo’.
More film clips are scattered throughout “Beyond the Dance”, such as interviews with Katherine Dunham herself, footage she took on her trips to Senegal, Martinique, and Haiti, as well as film from her dance classes.
Numerous props from theatrical sets, awards, newspaper articles, dancing shoes, and personal writings and items of Dunham scatter the exhibition. The list of such marvels and their specifics would be endless, indeed.
“Katherine Dunham: Beyond the Dance” delves into the passions and achievements of a fascinating, independent woman – one who drastically influenced both the future of modern dance and of the modern world.
“Katherine Dunham: Beyond the Dance” is presented the Missouri History Museum through Nov. 8. The museum is open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily and until 8 p.m. on Tuesday. Cost is $7 for adults, $5 for seniors and students and $3 for children age 6-12.

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“Katherine Dunham: Beyond the Dance” exhibition honors the life of the late dancer, anthropologist