Katherine Dunham : recovering an anthropological legacy, choreographing ethnographic futures / edited by Elizabeth Chin.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Chin, Elizabeth.

Series:

School of American Research advanced seminar series

Advanced seminar series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Dunham, Katherine.

Women dancers--United States--Biography.

Women dancers.

African American dancers--Biography.

African American dancers.

Women anthropologists--United States--Biography.

Women anthropologists.

African American anthropologists.

United States.

African American anthropologists--Biography.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xxii, 164 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Santa Fe : School for Advanced Research Press, [2014]

Summary:

Katherine Dunham was an anthropologist. One of the first African Americans to obtain a degree in anthropology, she conducted groundbreaking fieldwork in Jamaica and Haiti in the early 1930s and wrote several books including Journey to Accompong, Island Possessed, and Las Danzas de Haiti. Decades before Margaret Mead was publishing for popular audiences in Redbook, Dunham wrote ethnographically informed essays for Esquire and Mademoiselle under the pseudonym Kaye Dunn. Katherine Dunham was a dancer. The first person to head a black modern dance company, Dunham toured the world, appeared in numerous films in the United States and abroad, and worked globally to promote the vitality and relevance of African diasporic dance and culture. Dunham was a cultural advisor, teacher, Kennedy Center honoree, and political activist. This book explores Katherine Dunham's contribution to anthropology and the ongoing relevance of her ideas and methodologies, rejecting the idea that art and academics need to be cleanly separated from each other. Drawing from Dunham's holistic vision, the contributors began to experiment with how to bring the practice of art back into the discipline of anthropology-and vice versa. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Biographies / Katherine Dunham Dunham, Katherine, Ronald Marshall Marshall, Ronald, Anindo Marshall Marshall, Anindo 3

2 Research-to-Performance Methodology: Embodying Knowledge and Power from the Field to the Concert Stage / Rosemarie A. Roberts Roberts, Rosemarie A. 17

3 Katherine Dunham's First Journey in Anthropology / A. Lynn Bolles Bolles, A. Lynn 31

4 Katherine Dunham and the Folklore Performance Movement in Post-US Occupation Haiti / Kate Ramsey Ramsey, Kate 51

5 Notes on Floyd's Guitar Blues: Katherine Dunham's Costumes and Musical Production / Ronald Marshall Marshall, Ronald 73

6 Dunham Technique: Anthropological Politics of Dancing- through Ethnography / Elizabeth Chin Chin, Elizabeth 79

7 Katherine Dunham Made Me... / Dána-Ain Davis Davis, Dána-Ain 101

8 In the Dunham Way: Sewing (Sowing) the Seams of Dance, Anthropology, and Youth Arts Activism / Aimee Meredith Cox Cox, Aimee Meredith 127.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 145-154) and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Katherine Dunham

ISBN:

9781938645129

193864512X

OCLC:

846846949