Katherine Dunham Company

Dunham took part of her company to New York for the "New Pins and Needles; Talley Beatty quoted as being one of three dancers brought to New York, including Carmencita Romero and Roberta McLauren; they appeared in the chorus as extras while Dunham prepared her first concert with "Tropics" and "Le Jazz Hot" (presumably at the Windsor Theatre); while Dunham was in New York, part of the company remained in Chicago; when Dunham returned to Chicago to stage "Tropical Pinafore" Tommy Gomez and Lucille Ellis joined group; Dunham returned to New York, leaving part of the company to perform in "Pinafore" for a six-week run (120-121); when "Pins and Needles" closed (in June), Dunham took the group back to Chicago to join the rest of the troupe; company trained during the summer and performed various engagements, including night club at the Sherman Hotel; Papa Augustine, a Haitian drummer became an important member of the company during this period: "Cabin in the Sky" became the vehicle for integrating the New York and Chicago dancers into one company; Dunham's uncredited work choreographing and staging the material for her dancers (123-125); members of the company around 1956 included Glory Van Scott, Ural Wilson, Lenwood Morris, Vanoye Aikens, Lucille Ellis, Pearl Reynolds, Julie (Wilson) Belafonte, and Camille Yarbrough (153)

Dunham’s Data; research project (2018-2021) that uses choreographer Katherine Dunham as a case study to manually catalogue a daily itinerary of Dunham’s touring and travel from the 1930s-60s, the (estimated over 200) dancers, drummers, and singers in her employ during that time, and the repertory they performed

Katherine Dunham Company; troupe of dancers, singers, actors and musician; first African-American modern dance company; founded in Chicago, it grew out of Ballet Nègre, a student troupe founded in 1930 by Katherine Dunham (1909–2006); later became the Negro Dance Group; company had successful runs on Broadway and other major American cities; beginning in the 1940s, Dunham took her troupe on a series of highly acclaimed world tours; Dunham alumni include: Alvin Ailey, Rosalie King, Frances Davis, Eartha Kitt, and Walter Nicks; successful revues featuring the company included the Bal Nègre (1946)

Chronology of events in the life and career of Katherine Dunham, including details about her formation and management of her dance company;

Katherine Dunham forms a dance company, Ballet Nègre, one of the first Negro ballet companies in America, 1930; Ballet Nègre gives its debut performance at the annual Beaux Arts Ball in Chicago; group disbands, 1931;
Dunham consults (Ludmilla) Speranzeva about her idea to open a school for young black dancers to teach them about their African heritage; Speranzeva advises Dunham to forgo ballet, focus on modern dance, and develop her own style, 1932; Dunham opens her first dance school, the Negro Dance Group, in Chicago with Speranzeva's help, 1933; Dunham dances the leading role in Ruth Page's ballet La Guiablesse; Dunham revives Ballet Nègre, with students from her school, the Negro Dance Group; works in the repertory choreographed by Dunham include Spanish Dance and Fantasie Nègre, Dunham and her company appear at the Chicago World's Fair, 1934; Dunham receives a grant from the Julius Rosenwald Fund to study the dances of the West Indies; travels to the mountain village of Accompong in Jamaica; after brief stay, travels to Martinique and Trinidad, conducting anthropological fieldwork wherever, 1935; Dunham arrives in Haiti, the final stop of her field trip; in late spring Dunham returns to the United States, and receives a Ph.B. degree (bachelor of philosophy degree) social anthropology from the University of Chicago in August, 1936;appearance at the Young Men's Hebrew Association (YMHA) on Ninety-second Street in New York City, joining African and African-American modern dancers Edna Guy, Alison Burroughs, Clarence Yates, and Asadata Dafora for A Negro Dance Evening; first half of the program, Dunham presents a suite of West Indian dances; second half of the program, "Modern Trends," includes Tropic Death with Talley Beatty as the fugitive from a lynch mob; Rara Tonga premieres at the Goodman Theater in Chicago as part of a suite, Primitive Rhythms; later a staple of her repertory, it will subsequently be performed as an independent work; Dunham and her dancers premiere Tropics at the Abraham Lincoln Center in Chicago; the suite of dances includes Woman with a Cigar, 1937; Dunham choreographs and produces her first full-length ballet, L'Ag'Ya, based on a fighting dance of Martinique; Dunham's ballet became part of the repertory of Ballet Fedré, a component of the Federal Theater Project; Dunham is named director of the Negro Unit of the Chicago branch of the Federal Theater Project and stages dances in several Chicago productions, including Run Li'l Chil'lun and The Emperor Jones; Dunham choreographs and performs in Barrelhouse, a duet, 1938; Dunham begins her film career with Carnival of Rhythm, a short film produced by Warner Brothers devoted entirely to her, her company, and her choreography with Dunham, Archie Savage, and Talley Beatty as stars and not released until 1941 (other sources indicate filming was done in 1941); Dunham choreographs Bahiana,which would become one of Dunham's most celebrated characterizations and remain in her repertory throughout the 1940s; invited to contribute new material to Pins and Needles; for the second edition, entitled Pins and Needles 1940, she creates dance for "Bertha, the Sewing Machine Girl, or It's Better with a Union Man" number; Archie Savage is among the dancers, 1939; stages and choreographs Tropical Pinafore for the American Negro Light Opera Association of Chicago; as Pins and Needles 1940 continues its run at the Windsor Theater, New York, Dunham books her own company into the theater for a Sunday performance, which is so popular that the company repeats the Sunday performances for another ten weeks; these concerts, billed as Tropics and Le Jazz "Hot," consist of dances based on Latin American and Caribbean sources; George Balanchine and Vernon Duke see the company at the Hotel Sherman nightclub in Chicago and invite Dunham and her company to come to New York to perform in a new Broadway show; Dunham collaborates with Balanchine on choreography for dances in Cabin in the Sky, 1940; Dunham and her company of dancers and musicians embark on their first United States tour in the Broadway production of Cabin in the Sky; Dunham premieres Rites de Passage at the Curran Theater in San Francisco, 1941; the company remains in Los Angeles; Dunham contracted to be a featured dancer Star Spangled Rhythm and choreographs and appears in a solo number, "Sharp as a Tack"; Dunham stages dances for Pardon My Sarong, but neither she nor members of her company appear in the film, 1942; Sol Hurok presents Katherine Dunham and her company in Tropical Revue at New York's Martin Beck Theatre; original two-week engagement is extended by popular demand into a three-month run; company takes the show on a national tour; Dunham and her company appear in the film Stormy Weather, 1943; opened Dunham School of Dance and Theater in New York, 1944; Dunham Dancers among the acts in Blue Holiday (May) 1945; Dunham choreographed, directed, and starred in Carib Song with the company (September-October) 1945; Bal Negre opens in New York, 1946; Katherine Dunham Experimental Group presents Caribbean Backgrounds, Howard University, Washington, D.C., 1947; Dunham and company perform in Brussels, Paris, as well as Rome; Sol Hurok presents Dunham and company in a dance revue at the Broadway Theater; Dunham and company tour South America, Europe, and North Africa; against advice, Dunham premieres Southland in Chile, and under pressure from the U.S. Embassy, removes it from the program; Dunham and company toured the United States and Mexico, 1951-1953; Dunham and company tour Europe South America, and Mexico; Sol Hurok presents Dunham and company in a dance revue at Broadway Theatre, 1954-1955; Dunham and company tour Australia and New Zealand, 1956-1957; Dunham and company tour East Asia, 1958; Company leaves for its third European tour, 1959; European tour ends midway in Vienna; company disbands, marking the end of continuity of dancers trained by Dunham in the Dunham Technique and coached by her in her repertory, 1962; Dunham appears with a few former company dancers and the Royal Troupe of Morocco in a revue titled Bamboche!, her last appearance on Broadway

Dunham discovers a new world when she joins her brother as a student at the University of Chicago in 1928; becomes involved with Cube Theatre, a "little theatre" group, 1929; meets many artists and intellectuals; makes dance her focus and is introduced to poet and ballet dancer Mark Turbyfill; they start a school to train Black dancers for a new company Ballet Nègre, 1930; starts Negro Dance Group with Ludmilla Speranzeva, which debuts at Chicago Artists' Ball, 1932; involvement with Page and "La Guiablesse," 1933-1934 (chapter 1); discussion of the importance of L'Ag'Ya in the development of Dunham's "fusion" style (chapter 3); cites correspondence documenting that the film "Carnival of Rhythm" was shot during 1941; notes Dunham's disenchantment with Hollywood (chapter 4); suggests Dunham's departure for Mexico may have been motivated by her anticipation of being pursued by the House Un-American Activities Committee for her earlier association with left-leaning organizations and committment to social justice, anti-racism, and other progressive causes (chapter 5); Dunham's touring was largely self-financed; discusses lack of government support (chapter 6)