my shot I'm who [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Haiti 1936 for Katherine Dunham the American dancer and Anthropologist Haiti is the last leg of a year-long study of Caribbean [Music] dance her Research into why black people dance the way they do should have been completed by now but she's reluctant to go home the more she observes the more she understands Dunham was tracing her own Roots you know her Roots as a black person a person of African ancestry she would have seen dance as a means of communicating as a means of expressing life and living itself the European influence now is also there but the slaves and their descendants took many of the the the European influences and transform them and that is what the dance is [Music] about I wanted to know what drove her what made her go to the roots of her Heritage her answer was really simple she wanted to dignify the material she had seen how this material that she was using as her Source was such an integral part of the culture that it came out of she wanted to bring that as truly and honestly as she could and put it on stage and show people it's its beauty and its glory in Katherine Dunham's United States of 1936 the limit of what the black dancer could achieve is known as negro dance well if you were black dancer all you could aspire to was to be a shake dancer or a tap dancer or a contortion or an acrobat cuz that's all that was open to you we needed to see another vision of what black dancers could do the black dancer did not have a choice maybe if they were my skin color or maybe a little bit lighter they might be able to get into the Chorus Line they could not be in any of the evolving concert stage because they were black they were between a rock and a hard place literally I had gained enough knowledge in the West and East that I knew that I was doing some things from a point that was quite different from what the average person would see when he went to the theater or a rehearsal when Dunham returns to Chicago she realizes that new choreography will have to wait she must first teach her dancers the movements she's experienced and their spiritual dimension she tells her company they'll learn the steps of the [Music] Gods when she came back from Haiti it was quite a revelation because we found ourselves doing things that did not even seem to me like dance anymore there were a lot of voodoo movements and pelvic movements that our families were horrified when they saw us doing a whole different concept of dance because we learn the spiritual part of the [Music] dance in time these movements become the foundation of an approach to dance known as the Dunham technique based on the principle of isolation she formed this incredible movement system that is still prevalent today although she's not given credit for you learn to move each part of your body separately as though it has no connection with the other part of your body this was isolation of everything the hands shoulders [Music] hips the movement of the head the snap of the finger the wiggle of the knees and legs I don't think anyone ever mastered it as well as she did and contract Dunham builds her technique on her knowledge of ballet modern and afro Caribbean dance it covers the whole range of training the body to move what was added were the African elements [Music] four her technique was the hardest technique I had ever done you did all the head movements head movements with the side now narrow with the feet head movements I had never done this before where she said pull through the ear and go out from the side all these things spinning the head around so the head dances then we went to the shoulders and up and down and up up and down to the rib cage and out first chest way out C to the hips how to contract the hips front isolate the hips to the side to the back to the side how to circle the hips up and down take the hands up then you put all that together and you move across the floor right right right Circle it around Reach Out reach out but of all the Caribbean movements Dunham teaches the most exciting comes from the island of martinque there men perform a fighting dance called the agya a fusion of African and European combat Styles the agya developed because slaves were not allowed to possess weapons the agya is martial art disguised as dance as a tool Dunham uses film she shot in Martinique to teach the dance to her company she decides to build her first new choreography around the drama of the [Music] Aya Dunham premieres her dance in Chicago on January 27th 1938 less than a year after her return from the West Indies it was just a love story of a fishing Village I was a fisherman she was the girl and the devil was the other one who was mean but it it it was just a Romeo and Juliet Katherine Dunham is one of those people who could be dismissed as an anthropologist lifting things from the field onto the stage not at all she was an artist as well and a in fact a theatrical artist she understood the theater of much of what she saw in the field she knew that she wanted to make this material palatable to a broad audience but she was definitely going for the heart and the essence of a [Music] culture Lya becomes an instant success but Caribbean inspired material is not all Dunham wants audiences to appreciate all along she sought to build respect for African-American themes as well the chance to do this comes when the company is invited to New York City in a new show for Broadway tropics and Le Jazz Hut she creates a duet she calls Barrel House Blues it's based on the slow drag a couple's dance common to the Juke and The Honky Tonk the piece is controversial for audiences in 1940 barel house Blues was depicting the time in Chicago when it was cold and just knowing this lonely woman who felt a little beat up went on in a bar and and had the time of her life just for a moment finds this young man and fantasizes [Music] the critics were just baffled they were ignorant to the fact that this was a combination of the authentic with the artistic so they reverted back to their safety of it was sizzling it was hot it was torid it was sexy and all that business [Music] though the reviews are enthusiastic they're laced with a tone of condescension John Martin America's leading dance critic calls Barrel House Blues an incredible vulgarity in the New York [Music] Times like any innovator you're bound to give your audience trouble and Katherine Dunham did what they saw many critic dismissed as Cabaret and they felt it had no depth that wasn't [Music] true it was sassy and she was courageous she would always take risks always with her material even though they may uh criticize her like maybe that was too risque she wanted them to know we're complex people here's someone who said this is important vernacular dance the idea of looking at the blues experience in the body the idea of looking at the Jazz experience in the body the idea of looking at the spiritual experience in the body through dance that's a powerful Legacy [Music] John Martin said when he was reviewing Catherine it's not designed to delve into philosophy or psychology but to externalize the impulses of a high-spirited rhythmic and gracious race and I asked Katherine at one point about her feelings about John Martin's take on what she did and she said in this very very ladylike subdued way he was trying to be helpful and that's essentially the way you have to look at it the man's not trying to be malicious he's not trying to be mean he just doesn't get it and he's not the only critic who didn't get it celebrity ignites a hectic pace for Dunham she lectures at Eastern colleges on Caribbean culture writes magazine articles for Esquire under the pseudonym K Dunn and lands a starring role in the hit Broadway musical cabin in the [Music] sky what she had was a combination of magnetism sexuality and pure impact that can only be described as Star Quality she had that power that when she came upon the stage you had to look at her this was Katherine denam she was helped a great deal by her husband John Pratt who was such a creative person with lights and sets and and knew just how how to costume her John Pratt was such an integral part of kathern Denham and the Katherine Dunham company you might want to call him Mr Katherine Dunham but he was stronger than that it was fascinating relationship because they were both very strong they were both Geniuses at what they did and I know Miss D inspired him Dunham also acquires a reputation as a woman to be Reon with in 1943 she Tangles with the director of the film Stormy Weather Stormy Weather Stars Bill Bojangles Robinson and Lena horn but it's Dunham who steals the show well there's that wonderful scene in Stormy Weather when um there's the kind of breakaway and Lena horn is standing beside the window of course Lena's the star of of Stormy Weather but let's face it when we pan away to Katherine Dunham and she stands with her her 40s Fashions the Hat tilted to the side of the head one sees power but she actually has to negotiate her place and her sense of self and her sense of who the black dancer was in America at that point with the director of the film he wanted the whole scene to be the hookers and pimps on the street she says no nothing doing [Music] all of a sudden we're in another world a dream world she has negotiated in that particular film a sense of our perspective on who we are this larger sense of the black self that we ourselves Define [Music] the Dunham dance company is one of the best known dance groups in the world and yet it is difficult keeping the troop going the Donal company was characterized by the fact that it was constantly in a state of bankruptcy it could be a little less bankruptcy or a little more but the basic uh situation was always uh either mild or extreme desperation to pay the bills the company tours constantly and performs in nightclubs and private functions celebrity is a mixed [Music] blessing we were traveling and performing in a in a time of extreme segregation in the Warrior years we got mixed in with troop trains and army Personnel would get very hot about it they'd begin to smolder they would pass through our car which they were not supposed to do and uh let loose with epithets like uh how come how come the [ __ ] have got sleeping accommodations and we don't but Dunham refuses to be intimidated at every turn she uses her Fame to C counter racism wherever she goes in the US she tells the Press about hotels which deny her accommodation she rejects engagements before segregated audiences and speaks out on civil rights for Negroes even during World War II when some thought it unpatriotic with the goal of Victory overseas and at home African-American artists used their talent during the war to protest inequality in 1943 Pearl primis a young modern dancer stuns her audience with a solo about lynching this is an allout War she writes we will not stop fighting until everyone is free primis sets her dance without music to the words of Lewis Allen's poem Strange Fruit Southern trees bear a Strange Fruit Blood on the leaves and blood at the root that a black man had been killed he had been hung maybe he had been shot that a black man had to have suffered these iniquities and here Pearl primis a black dancer had the audacity to take the story of hate of sadness of murder and put it on the stage as a violent solo no other dancer had gone that far to do a dance of that style pastoral scene of the Gallant South the bulging eyes and the Twisted mouth there was a great deal of pain in the movement as she contorted her body to show the utmost pain and suffering of the human Spirit scent of Magnolia sweet and fresh and the sudden smell of burning flesh despite the unsettling nature of primis solos she is widely embraced by the modern dance world and by audiences this notoriety is a surprise especially to primis who wanted first to be a doctor then an anthropologist a part-time job takes her to the new dance group and it's here she HS her dance technique and political Edge the new dance group was a a very unique organization they felt that dance was for everyone and their motto was dance as a weapon for social justice I think it was the only place in New York that was integrated it wasn't only one technique or one form was everything and that's what made the new dance group the fact that Not only was it everything in dance it was also everything in people but within a year of her debut primis stops performing allog together to create dances of consequence she feels she has to learn more about black people and their ways eager to use her recent training in anthropology she travels to the Deep South she ends up in the black belt of Alabama Georgia and South Carolina and immerses herself into everyday life she disguises herself as a migrant Farm worker picking cotton harvesting fruit practically any work that would let her learn by observation and participation I think that the pull to anthropology by African-American women is this pull to try to understand their own role their marginal role in American society and they become true participant observers and try to bring back different Notions of what it means to be a woman what it can mean to be an African-American as her experiences unfold all that primis observes becomes potential Source material she pays particular attention to how Ordinary People move at work and at play noting how similar these movements are among Black [Music] Folk but it's the religious rituals of rural blacks that have the greatest impact on her she's searching for the roots of African-American spiritualism that informs our religious rituals with Dance Movement with uh almost extroverted expression of of spiritual fervor and that the body is inhabited by these spirits and they come out yes he did yes he did I can tell the world about this I the primis creates a slew of new dances based on her Southern field workor often performing at political rallies and fundraisers her most famous piece hardtime Blues heightens her reputation as an activist artist to the boss at the commissary store folks all starving Please Don't Close Your do they had hard hard times th all around meal Bears interc bur to the ground guard [Music] might but after the war Primus pays a price for her militancy she's called before the house on American Activities Committee and has her passport revoked once before a performance in Harrisburg Virginia she is spat upon stoned and called a red undeterred primis continues to dance then in 1948 the president of the Rosenwald Foundation which funded Katherine Dunham's research 14 years earlier to the Caribbean sees primis perform and offers to fund a research trip for her to Africa of the many dances she learns there her favorite is the first she learns the funga funga was a dance of welcome I ask the earth and the heavens to welcome you you are a guest in my community you're a guest in my [Music] home when Pearl introduced us to the fonga we studied and listened to the rhythms very closely because the music and the dance were very closely integrated they were [Music] one Elders in over 30 tribal groups teach primis their dances [Music] and though she films them for future reference it is only when she joins in that she grasps the full meaning of dance this was a way for her to be there firsthand as a witness as a participant uh as part of the culture and she stayed there long enough to really become absorbed in the material that she was studying and all along dance is at the center of this cultural exploration this search for who she is Africans recognize a strong kinship in her dancing they give her the name om which means child returned [Music] home for the next 30 Years Pearl primis will become one of America's foremost teachers of African dance she realized the power of Africa and that Africa had something to teach us about negotiating one's identity and meaning in life has all been a part of Dance for for blacks Africa in the Americas is a very important cultural and historical phenomenon African slaves could preserve things like music and dance these are things which are outside the reach of the oppressor so those persisted with vengeance there is such a thing as an African cultural Continuum in Brazil in the Caribbean in um black North America there are movements there are languages there are artistic Expressions that have roots in Africa but have been transformed in the new world African-American artists want to find connections they take so much from the past and honor it and change it and transform it and it's that quality that is perhaps most indicative of a black [Music] aesthetic the aesthetic and cultural Continuum that stretches from Africa to various black cultures in the new world has always been a potent Force it's passed from one generation to another it's passed from one body to another through dance it's passed from one voice to another through music it's a lift tradition it's a lift tradition [Music] by the late 1940s young dancers who had cut their teeth with primis and Dunham begin to leave some join established companies which are slowly opening their doors to blacks several Dunham dancers choose to teach in the school she creates in 1945 a select few however seek their own individual voice and dance one of Dunham's original dancers tally batty is among the first of her company to strike out on his own people who left her if they formed a company of their own they were doing a weak imitation of kathern Dunham except one person tally Bey he was the best answer that she had when T branched out on his own he made wonderful Works tally had power he had excitement and he had an amazing