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Katherine Dunham was born in Chicago. Her father was of African descent, and her mother was French-Canadian and American Indian. Her background and culture would later inspire her style of dance.
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Katherine Dunham studies ballet with Ludmilla Speranzeva. Speranzeva was one of the first teachers to accept black dancers as students.
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This helps to shape her style of dance.
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This was one of the first Negro dance companies in the United States. She wanted to help African Americans learn about their heritage.
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In a Chicago Opera production, Dunham receives the leading role in a ballet that features black dancers.
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Dunham receives a grant from the Julius Rosenwald Fund to study the dances of the West Indies. She travels from Jamaica to Haiti through 1936.
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Dunham choreographs and produces her first full-length ballet, L'Ag'Ya, which debuts in January at the Federal Theater, Chicago. She coproduced this ballet with her future husband, John Pratt.
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Dunham and her company of dancers and musicians embark on their first United States tour in the Broadway production of Cabin in the Sky.
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The company travels to Mexico where they stay for 2 months due to popularity. They then travel for the next 20 years to over 33 countries to perform. The tour ended in 1960 in Vienna.
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Katherine performs one final show at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York. After she retired, she continued to choreograph many other productions.
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Katherine dies in New York City. She is remembered for her interpretations of ethnic dances as well as her love of black culture. In the later years of her life, she was an activist for equality. At age 83, she went on a 47-day hunger strike to protest the United States's foreign policy against Haitian boat-people.
