[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 90 (Wednesday, June 18, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1292-E1293]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     HONORING KATHERINE DUNHAM ON THE OCCASION OF HER 94TH BIRTHDAY

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. JERRY F. COSTELLO

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 18, 2003

  Mr. COSTELLO. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to take this opportunity to 
pay tribute to Katherine Dunham on the occasion of her 94th birthday.
  Born in Joliet, Illinois, on June 22, 1910, Katherine Dunham became 
interested in dance at an early age. While a student at the University 
of Chicago, she formed a dance group that performed in concert at the 
Chicago World's Fair in 1934 and with the Chicago Civic Opera in 1935-
36.
  With a bachelor's degree in anthropology, she soon undertook field 
studies in the Caribbean and in Brazil. By the time she received her 
M.A. from the University of Chicago, she had acquired a vast knowledge 
of the dances and rituals of the black peoples of tropical America. 
(She later took a Ph.D. in anthropology.)
  In 1938, she joined the Federal Theatre Project in Chicago and 
composed a ballet, L'Ag'Ya, based on Caribbean dance. In 1940, she 
formed an all-black company, which began touring extensively by 1943. 
Tropics (choreographed 1937) and Le Jazz Hot (1938) were among the 
earliest of many works based on her research.
  Katherine Dunham is noted for her innovative interpretations of 
primitive, ritualistic, and ethnic dances and her tracing the roots of 
black culture. Many of her students, trained in her studios in Chicago 
and New York City, have become prominent in the field of modern dance. 
She also choreographed for Broadway

[[Page E1293]]

stage productions and opera--including Aida (1963) for the New York 
Metropolitan Opera. She also choreographed and starred in dance 
sequences in such films as Carnival of Rhythm (1942), Stormy Weather 
(1943), and Casbah (1947).
  Dunham also conducted special projects for Chicago black high school 
students. She served as the artistic and technical director (1966-67) 
to the president of Senegal and artist-in-residence, and later 
professor, at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, and director 
of Southern Illinois' Performing Arts Training Centre and Dynamic 
Museum in East St. Louis, Ill.
  Dunham's writings, sometimes published under the pseudonym Kaye Dunn, 
include Katherine Dunham's Journey to Accompong (1946), an account of 
her anthropological studies in Jamaica; A Touch of Innocence (1959), an 
autobiography; and Island Possessed (1969), as well as several articles 
for popular and scholarly journals.
  Except for a brief appearance in 1965, Dunham has not performed 
regularly since 1962 and has concentrated on her choreography. One of 
her major works was the choreographing and directing of Scott Joplin's 
opera Treemonisha in 1972. When she dissolved her company in 1965 to 
become advisor to the cultural ministry of Senegal she returned to the 
United States in 1967.
  She left the conventional dance world of New York that year to live 
and work in East St. Louis at an inner-city branch of the Southern 
Illinois University, running a school attached to the University and 
working with neighborhood and youth groups.
  The living Dunham tradition has persisted. She is considered a woman 
far ahead of her time. She considers her technique ``a way of life.'' 
The classes at her Manhattan school--attended by many artists, 
including Marlon Brando and Eartha Kitt, during the 1940s and the 
1950s, were noted for their liberating influence.
  Her master of body movement was considered ``phenomenal.'' She was 
hailed for her smooth and fluent choreography and dominated a stage 
with what has been described as ``an unmitigating radiant force 
providing beauty with a feminine touch full of variety and nuance.'' 
Otherwise known as the Dunham Technique, which is still practiced 
today.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in honoring Katherine 
Dunham on the occasion of her 94th birthday. Katherine's lifetime of 
experiences and her contribution to the world of dance is an invaluable 
resource to not only the people of East St. Louis but to the world.

                          ____________________