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Born in Chicago and raised in Joliet , Illnois
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Started to study ballet with Ludmilla Speranzeva, Vera Mirova, Mark Turbyfill and Ruth Page
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She entered the University of Chicago with a schloarship. She majored in social anthropology with a dance being a focus. Robert Redfield and Melville Herskovits were anthropologists that had inspired Dunham.
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In 1931 during her college years, Dunham founded her student dance company called "Ballet Negre".
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Dunham landed her first lead role in Ruth Page's ballet "La Guiablesse".
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Dunham recieved a grant from the Julius Rosenwald Fund to study dances of the West Indies. Her trip to Haiti changed her entire career and made her focus more on the people of Haiti and their dance,
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Dunham created the Negro dance group which was a company of srtists devoted to using African-American and Afircan-Caribbean dance.
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Dunham had a majpr role in the musical play, "Cabin in the Sky" and collaborated with George Balanchine on the choreography in Martin Beck Theater and New York.
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In 1944, the Dunham School of Dance and Theater opened and classes were taught in technique, humanities, philosophy, languages, aesthetics, drama, and speech.
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Dunham is known for her dance techinque that incorporates the movements of African and Caribbean dance while integrating the techniques of ballet and modern dance.
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Dunham received the Dance Pioneer Award given by the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
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Dunham received an honorary doctorate of fine arts from Washington University.
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Died in her home in Manhattan at age 96.
