Katherine Dunham and the Politics of Dance
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Choreographing a New World: Katherine Dunham and the Politics of Dance Joanna Dee Das Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2014 ! 2014 Joanna Dee Das All rights reserved ABSTRACT Choreographing a New World: Katherine Dunham and the Politics of Dance Joanna Dee Das This dissertation analyzes the intellectual and political contributions of choreographer Katherine Dunham (1909-2006). As an African American woman, Dunham broke several barriers of race and gender, first as an anthropologist conducting ethnographic fieldwork in the Caribbean in the 1930s, and second as the artistic director of a major dance company that toured the United States, Latin America, Europe, Asia, and Australia from the 1930s through the 1960s. She also wrote several scholarly books and articles, opened multiple schools, and served on the boards of numerous arts organizations. Although Dunham’s contributions to anthropology and dance are vitally important, “Choreographing a New World” emphasizes her political engagement. Through actions both onstage and off, she helped strengthen the transnational ties of black social movements from the New Negro Movement to the Black Power Movement. In particular, the dissertation contends that Dunham made dance one of the primary forces in the creation and perpetuation of the African diaspora. She herself attempted to live diaspora by forging personal connections across racial, linguistic, national, class, and cultural borders. In order to shift the focus to Dunham’s intellectual and political engagement, “Choreographing a New World” turns to previously untapped archival sources. This dissertation is the first scholarly work on Dunham to examine archives from the U.S. State Department, Office of Economic Opportunity, Bernard Berenson Papers, Rockefeller Foundation Records, Langston Hughes Papers, and Rosenwald Foundation Papers, among other archives. It combines insights from these archives with choreographic analysis, interviews with Dunham’s former dancers and students, and embodied participant-observation research at the annual International Katherine Dunham Technique Seminars from 2010 to 2013. Overall, “Choreographing a New World” not only provides a new perspective on Dunham, but also raises important questions about dance as an intellectual and political activity, especially within an African diasporic context. ! TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Illustrations ii List of Abbreviations iii Acknowledgments iv Introduction 1 Chapter 1: From Chicago to the Caribbean: Intellectual and Artistic Foundations 19 Chapter 2: Creating Diaspora: Aesthetics as Politics 69 Chapter 3: Pursuing a Double Victory: Racism and Representation During World War II 107 Chapter 4: The Dunham School and the Post-World War II International Moment 164 Chapter 5: The Unofficial Ambassador: Dunham’s International Tours 197 Chapter 6: The Rebirth: Katherine Dunham and the Black Arts Movement 239 Epilogue: Dunham’s Legacy 288 Bibliography 300 i LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 1: Katherine Dunham (center) and dancers in Fantasie Nègre, 1932 34 Figure 2: Katherine Dunham in L’Ag’Ya, 1938 81 Figure 3: Zombie scene of L’Ag’Ya, Federal Theater Project, 1938 82 Figure 4: Katherine Dunham in Batucada (Bahiana), ca. 1948 91 Figure 5: Katherine Dunham in Cabin in the Sky, 1940 103 Figure 6: Screen shot of Katherine Dunham in Star-Spangled Rhythm, 1942 117 Figure 7: Katherine Dunham in the Baltimore Afro-American, 1943 123 Figure 8: Katherine Dunham as “The Woman with the Cigar,” ca. 1939 131 Figures 9 and 10: “Fertility” section of Rites de Passage, ca. 1948 134 Figure 11: Shango, 1947 175 Figure 12: James Dean and Eartha Kitt in a Dunham Technique Class, early 1950s 185 Figure 13: Katherine Dunham in Veracruzana, 1949 202 Figure 14: Julie (Robinson) Belafonte in Southland, 1953 212 Figure 15: Linda McKinley and Darryl Braddix on train tracks in East St. Louis, 1970 270 ii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS BECA Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs Historical Collection, Special Collections, University of Arkansas Libraries, Fayetteville, Arkansas Berenson Papers Bernard and Mary Berenson Papers, Series IV: Correspondence, Biblioteca Berenson, Villa I Tatti, Florence, Italy JRDD Jerome Robbins Dance Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts JRP Julius Rosenwald Papers, Special Collections, Fisk University Franklin Library, Nashville, Tennessee KDC-LOC Katherine Dunham Collection, Music Division, Library of Congress, Washington, DC KDP-MHS Katherine Dunham Papers, Missouri Historical Society Library and Research Center, St. Louis KDP-SIUC Katherine Mary Dunham Papers, Morris Library Special Collections Research Center, Southern Illinois University Carbondale LHC Langston Hughes Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut MHP Melville Herskovits Papers, University Archives, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois NARA National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland RFR Rockefeller Foundation Records, Rockefeller Archive Center, Sleepy Hollow, New York. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to open by thanking three remarkable women who inspired this dissertation: Lee Nolting, Lynn Garafola, and Katherine Dunham. As my first dance teacher, Lee Nolting cultivated my love of dance and exposed me to Dunham’s model of community engagement through the arts. When I was searching for a new way to keep dance in my life, Lynn Garafola showed me that it was possible to be a dance historian. Finally, this dissertation would not be possible without Katherine Dunham herself. Her remarkable life story gave me the sense of urgency that this dissertation had to be written. The dissertation would not have happened, however, without the financial support of several institutions. I would like to thank Columbia University, in particular the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race, and the American Studies Program, for the funding that made my research and writing possible. I also benefited from a four-year Jacob K. Javits Fellowship from the U.S. government. Several archivists and librarians also gave helpful assistance. I offer thanks in particular to Elizabeth Aldrich at the Library of Congress, Molly Kudner and Dennis Northcott at the Missouri Historical Society, and Pam Hackbart-Dean at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. A special thank you goes to Kathy Neely and the Neely-Streit family for housing me in Carbondale during my archival research. It takes a village of readers and editors to make a dissertation happen as well. My first thank you in this area goes to Eric Foner, my advisor, who read every word. His guidance over the past few years has been invaluable. Several others read and commented on chapters of the dissertation, including my committee members Casey Blake, Brent Edwards, Lynn Garafola, and Natasha Lightfoot, as well as Elizabeth Blackmar, Melissa Borja, Julia Foulkes, Hilary Hallett, Tamara Mann, Minkah Makalani, Michael Neuss, Paul Scolieri, Tim Shenk, Jude Webre, and iv Andy Whitford. Their collective wisdom improved the dissertation tremendously. Arthi Devarajan, Charlotte Jacobs, Mariska Kappmeier, and Frances Peace Sullivan provided the external structure necessary to put words to the page. Their warm camaraderie made the isolating task of writing a dissertation much more enjoyable. Other friends and family also offered support in various ways. Victoria Phillips deserves a special thank you for her generosity in sharing numerous archival materials. She, along with Ana Keilson and Elizabeth Schwall, were my fellow Columbia dance historians, and all three offered both intellectual community and places to stay during my itinerant dissertation-writing years. Emily Flanders provided research assistance in Washington, D.C. Rebecca Alaly, Om Arora, Sarah Bush, Divya Cherian, David Cormode, Kavita Das, Kiron and Kamala Das, Stacey and Gabi Gillett, Ellie Kusner, and Matt Swagler also provided housing, food, and good company. I thank all of the people I interviewed, including Vanoye Aikens, Julie Belafonte, Darryl Braddix, Saroya Corbett, Jean Gennaro, Warrington Hudlin, Theodore Jamison, Dr. Albirda Rose, Ruby Streate, and Dr. Glory Van Scott. Several others shared their stories of Dunham in conversations over the years, and all of their insights form an important part of this dissertation. I opened with an invocation to three people who made this dissertation possible, and I close with another three. First, I thank Koushik Das, who has been with me through every step of this process. I have benefitted profoundly from his insistence that I tell a story and tell it well. Finally, I must thank Susan and Jeffrey Dee, who read and edited every chapter. I dedicate this dissertation to them. v Introduction “Choreographing a New World: Katherine Dunham and the Politics of Dance” is a story about a remarkable woman and a set of ideas that she helped shape in the twentieth century. Katherine Dunham’s life spanned almost ninety-seventy years, from June 22, 1909 to May 21, 2006. Though her primary career was as a dancer and choreographer, she was also an anthropologist, author, educator, and political activist who envisioned a new world free of racism, violence, and imperial domination. Her personal networks alone spoke to the diverse influences that informed her perspective. She befriended presidents of Haiti and Senegal, contemplated