Katherine Dunham

Katherine Dunham (1909–2006) was an American dancer, choreographer, anthropologist, and civil rights activist whose work transformed modern dance. Trained in anthropology, she researched Caribbean and African diasporic dance traditions and brought them to concert stages with a distinctive technique that blended scholarship and performance. In the 1930s and 1940s she gained national prominence through Broadway, film, and touring productions, and she founded the Katherine Dunham Company, one of the first major Black dance companies in the United States. Dunham also taught widely, establishing schools and mentoring generations of performers while advocating for racial justice.