Friday, September 29, 2023
  • Contact Us
The Caribbean Post
Advertisement
  • Current News
    • Politics
    • Business
  • Tech News
  • Education
  • Entertainment
    • Travel
    • Lifestyle
  • Health
    • Recipes
  • World
    • Antigua
    • Aruba
    • Barbados
    • Barbuda
    • Dominica
    • Dominican Republic
    • Guadeloupe
    • Guyana
    • Haiti
    • Jamaica
    • St Lucia
    • Suriname
    • Tobago
    • Trinidad
No Result
View All Result
The Caribbean Post
  • Current News
    • Politics
    • Business
  • Tech News
  • Education
  • Entertainment
    • Travel
    • Lifestyle
  • Health
    • Recipes
  • World
    • Antigua
    • Aruba
    • Barbados
    • Barbuda
    • Dominica
    • Dominican Republic
    • Guadeloupe
    • Guyana
    • Haiti
    • Jamaica
    • St Lucia
    • Suriname
    • Tobago
    • Trinidad
No Result
View All Result
The Caribbean Post
No Result
View All Result
Home World Haiti

Katherine Dunham studies dance in Haiti, West Indies for anthropology degree from University of Chicago

Staff by Staff
June 24, 2022
in Haiti, World
0
Katherine Dunham studies dance in Haiti, West Indies for anthropology degree from University of Chicago
2
SHARES
12
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

You might also like

Guyana receives bids for eight oil and gas blocks, including from Exxon and Total – Reuters

From Discovery to First Production : What Africa's Hottest Frontier Oil Play-Namibia Can Learn from Guyana (By NJ Ayuk) Not only have oil and gas companies been drawn to Guyana's vast hydrocarbon resources, but they've also taken note of the country's att – Marketscreener.com

Royale De Monte Carlo Vodka Announces MOU for Distribution Agreement throughout the French Caribbean Islands: Guadeloupe, Martinique, St. Barthélemy (St. Barts, St. Barth), St. Martin, Les Saintes and Marie-Galante – Yahoo Finance

As published in the Chicago Daily News, sister publication of the Chicago Sun-Times:

By 1935, Chicago Daily News readers had likely become familiar with the name Katherine Dunham appearing in print. At 26, she’d made a name for herself as a dancer. In 1933, she and her dance group performed native African ceremonial dances at the Punch and Judy theater, and a year later, she danced in the ballet of the Chicago Grand Opera Company.

Dunham, born June 22, 1909 in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, recognized the powerful meanings that could come from dances and movements in Black cultures, and in 1935, she won the opportunity to study the dances of Haiti and the West Indies. The year-long project influenced her own choreography and made significant contributions to the field of anthropology.

Dunham started her tour in June 1935 when she won a fellowship from The Rosenwald Fund, according to a June 20 Daily News article. To prepare, she spent three months studying with Northwestern University’s Prof. Melville J. Herskovits, an expert in the field of anthropology in Haiti, the West Indies and Guianas.

“Miss Dunham is not only a dancer but a composer of dances, a choreographer,” Edwin R. Embree, president of the fund, told reporter Frank L. Hayes. “She will gather transplanted African dance motives and rhythms which she plans to adapt in new dances to be presented in the United States.”

Hayes, of course, couldn’t follow Dunham on her tour, but she filmed many of the dances she witnessed. Clips from that footage can now be found in the Library of Congress archives. One clip shows “calenda and banda dances of Trinidad in outdoor settings, accompanied by male drummers and women singing and playing maracas,” and another depicts a traditional dance from Martinique and shows “a compilation of travel and dance footage in Martinique and Jamaica.”

When the dancer returned to the U.S. a year later, Hayes attended her demonstration of a Haitian ceremonial dance to a voodoo snake spirit called Damballa back at the fund’s offices at 48th Street and Ellis. Herskovits drummed as she danced. As he picked up the pace, “the dancer’s shoulder’s twitched in slow rhythm, gradually accelerating with the drum,” Hayes reported. “The selected audience drew in its breath.”

While in Haiti, Dunham recounted, she first learned the dance to Damballa in the plains of the country, but when she performed it in the mountains, some of the people watching could not be convinced that she, with her talent and skill, had been trained. They believed she was actually possessed by Damballa.

“They even brought offerings to me, as they do to one who is possessed,” she explained. “It was an embarrassing situation, for I did not wish to deceive them by pretending to a possession which was not real. I took the only way out I could think of, plunging into the baptismal pool.”

For the most part, the local men and women, many of whom were skeptical of Americans after the “publication of sensational accounts or purported accounts of Haitian mysteries,” welcomed Dunham, who convinced them of her sympathies and her sincere desire to live as they lived. But there was one major trial in Trinidad.

“I brought a chicken to a ceremony to sacrifice for an ancestor,” she recounted. “I tried to take a picture of a man who was possessed. My clicking camera betrayed me; the people disbanded the ceremony and, much exorcised, held a meeting to decide what should be done about me. I slid out, saying I would return; I did return another time, and think I was forgiven, but they were rather cool.”


Credit: Source link

Tags: anthropologyChicagodancedegreeDunhamHaitiIndiesKatherinestudiesUniversityWest
Previous Post

WHO Chief Says Global Monkeypox Situation ‘Cannot Be Ignored’

Next Post

Mexico disappoints against Haiti, still wins Group F in 2022 U20 CONCACAF Tournament thanks to a 0-0 tie

Staff

Staff

Related Posts

Guyana receives bids for eight oil and gas blocks, including from Exxon and Total – Reuters
Guyana

Guyana receives bids for eight oil and gas blocks, including from Exxon and Total – Reuters

by Staff
September 13, 2023
From Discovery to First Production : What Africa's Hottest Frontier Oil Play-Namibia Can Learn from Guyana (By NJ Ayuk) Not only have oil and gas companies been drawn to Guyana's vast hydrocarbon resources, but they've also taken note of the country's att – Marketscreener.com
Guyana

From Discovery to First Production : What Africa's Hottest Frontier Oil Play-Namibia Can Learn from Guyana (By NJ Ayuk) Not only have oil and gas companies been drawn to Guyana's vast hydrocarbon resources, but they've also taken note of the country's att – Marketscreener.com

by Staff
July 10, 2023
Royale De Monte Carlo Vodka Announces MOU for Distribution Agreement throughout the French Caribbean Islands: Guadeloupe, Martinique, St. Barthélemy (St. Barts, St. Barth), St. Martin, Les Saintes and Marie-Galante – Yahoo Finance
Guadeloupe

Royale De Monte Carlo Vodka Announces MOU for Distribution Agreement throughout the French Caribbean Islands: Guadeloupe, Martinique, St. Barthélemy (St. Barts, St. Barth), St. Martin, Les Saintes and Marie-Galante – Yahoo Finance

by Staff
June 29, 2023
Reunion Gold Announces Additional Drill Results From Its Oko West Project, Guyana, Highlighted by Hole D-254 Which Intersected 120.7 M @ 3.13 g/t Au Including High Grade Intercepts Of 35.2 M @ 7.42 g/t Au and 8.4 M @ 9.65 g/t Au – Yahoo Finance
Guyana

Reunion Gold Announces Additional Drill Results From Its Oko West Project, Guyana, Highlighted by Hole D-254 Which Intersected 120.7 M @ 3.13 g/t Au Including High Grade Intercepts Of 35.2 M @ 7.42 g/t Au and 8.4 M @ 9.65 g/t Au – Yahoo Finance

by Staff
June 1, 2023
Flying drones and chasing data, Indigenous women in Guyana join fight against climate change – The Associated Press
Guyana

Flying drones and chasing data, Indigenous women in Guyana join fight against climate change – The Associated Press

by Staff
May 25, 2023
Next Post
Mexico disappoints against Haiti, still wins Group F in 2022 U20 CONCACAF Tournament thanks to a 0-0 tie

Mexico disappoints against Haiti, still wins Group F in 2022 U20 CONCACAF Tournament thanks to a 0-0 tie

Recommended

Trinidad and Tobago opposition leader calls for financial declaration

Trinidad and Tobago opposition leader calls for financial declaration

August 7, 2023
Small island states or large ocean nations? | Green

Small island states or large ocean nations? | Green

March 1, 2023

Categories

  • Business (877)
  • Current News (394)
  • Education (34)
  • Entertainment (135)
    • Lifestyle (67)
    • Travel (23)
  • Health (397)
    • Recipes (309)
  • Politics (38)
  • Tech News (90)
  • World (3,483)
    • Antigua (28)
    • Aruba (30)
    • Barbados (28)
    • Barbuda (28)
    • Dominica (29)
    • Dominican Republic (29)
    • Guadeloupe (538)
    • Guyana (888)
    • Haiti (28)
    • Jamaica (28)
    • St Lucia (27)
    • Suriname (28)
    • Tobago (884)
    • Trinidad (889)

Don't miss it

Stick of Butter Rice – Immaculate Bites
Recipes

Stick of Butter Rice – Immaculate Bites

September 27, 2023
Early warning systems crucial for climate adaptation—report
Current News

Early warning systems crucial for climate adaptation—report

September 26, 2023
Easy Broiled Salmon Recipe – Immaculate Bites
Recipes

Easy Broiled Salmon Recipe – Immaculate Bites

September 25, 2023
10 Best Pet-Friendly Resorts in Jamaica
Lifestyle

10 Best Pet-Friendly Resorts in Jamaica

September 22, 2023
Sweet Potato Waffles – Immaculate Bites
Recipes

Sweet Potato Waffles – Immaculate Bites

September 22, 2023
TrinaTracker secures order for 108MW smart solar tracking system in Colombia
Business

TrinaTracker secures order for 108MW smart solar tracking system in Colombia

September 21, 2023
The Caribbean Post

This is an online news portal that aims to share latest news about Africa, Caribbean and other countries of Africa with respect to business, entertainment, breaking updates and stuff like that. Feel free to get in touch!

Categories

  • Business
  • Current News
  • Education
  • Entertainment
    • Lifestyle
    • Travel
  • Health
    • Recipes
  • Politics
  • Tech News
  • World
    • Antigua
    • Aruba
    • Barbados
    • Barbuda
    • Dominica
    • Dominican Republic
    • Guadeloupe
    • Guyana
    • Haiti
    • Jamaica
    • St Lucia
    • Suriname
    • Tobago
    • Trinidad

Browse by Tag

announces Barbados Bites Business Caribbean Caribe climate COVID COVID19 Cup day development Dominica economic energy food France French global growth Guadeloupe Guyana Guyanas Guyanese Health Immaculate Jamaica Local man Minister National News oil police President Room Route Silicon support Tobago Tobagos trade Trinidad weather World

Recent News

Stick of Butter Rice – Immaculate Bites

Stick of Butter Rice – Immaculate Bites

September 27, 2023
Early warning systems crucial for climate adaptation—report

Early warning systems crucial for climate adaptation—report

September 26, 2023
Easy Broiled Salmon Recipe – Immaculate Bites

Easy Broiled Salmon Recipe – Immaculate Bites

September 25, 2023
10 Best Pet-Friendly Resorts in Jamaica

10 Best Pet-Friendly Resorts in Jamaica

September 22, 2023

2022© Design by CodingBite | Powered by LuxamaMedia.

No Result
View All Result
  • Current News
    • Politics
    • Business
  • Tech News
  • Education
  • Entertainment
    • Travel
    • Lifestyle
  • Health
    • Recipes
  • World
    • Antigua
    • Aruba
    • Barbados
    • Barbuda
    • Dominica
    • Dominican Republic
    • Guadeloupe
    • Guyana
    • Haiti
    • Jamaica
    • St Lucia
    • Suriname
    • Tobago
    • Trinidad

2022© Design by CodingBite | Powered by LuxamaMedia.