Katherine Dunham 2006 Deaths

Katherine Dunham

dancer, choreographer, and anthropologist who in the 1930s established the first self-supporting black modern-dance troupe, which performed all over the world, introducing audiences to Caribbean and African culture. Her choreography, called the Dunham Technique, stressed movement of individual parts of the body and influenced Alvin Ailey and other prominent modern dancers. She won the Presidential Medal of the Arts and the Albert Schweitzer Prize.