Watch Dance Masters: Katherine Dunham

Dance Masters: Katherine Dunham is a documentary that chronicles the extraordinary life and career of Katherine Dunham, a pioneering dancer, choreographer, and anthropologist who revolutionized the world of modern dance. Directed by Thomas Grimm, the film presents an intimate portrait of Dunham as a trailblazer who broke barriers of race and gender to create a new form of dance that reflected the richness and diversity of African American and Caribbean culture.

Born in Chicago in 1909, Dunham showed an early passion for dance and studied both African and European dance styles in her youth. She later traveled to the Caribbean and studied the traditional dances of Jamaica, Cuba, and Haiti, which would greatly influence her own choreography. In the early 1930s, Dunham formed her first dance company and began touring the United States, Europe, and Latin America with her groundbreaking productions.

The documentary features archival footage of Dunham's performances and interviews with dancers, scholars, and family members who reflect on her impact and legacy. Among them are Judith Jamison, former artistic director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and Dunham's daughter, Marie-Christine Dunham Pratt, who shares personal stories about her mother's life and work.

Throughout the film, viewers see the evolution of Dunham's choreography, from her early experiments with blending African and European dance in pieces like "L'Ag'Ya" and "Barrelhouse Blues" to her later collaborations with jazz musicians like Dizzy Gillespie and Billy Strayhorn. The documentary also examines Dunham's work as an anthropologist, which informed her understanding of dance as a way of expressing cultural identity and preserving heritage.

Dunham's legacy extends beyond her career as a dancer and choreographer. The film explores her activism, including her involvement in the civil rights movement and her efforts to combat racism and inequality in the arts. The documentary also looks at Dunham's educational initiatives, which included founding the Katherine Dunham School of Dance in New York and teaching ethnographic dance at Southern Illinois University.

Overall, Dance Masters: Katherine Dunham offers a fascinating portrait of one of the most influential figures in modern dance. Through a mixture of interviews, archival footage, and performance excerpts, the film conveys Dunham's passion for dance as a means of social change and cultural exchange. It celebrates her groundbreaking innovations in choreography and her dedication to preserving and celebrating the richness and diversity of African American and Caribbean culture.

Dance Masters: Katherine Dunham is a 1978 documentary with a runtime of 22 minutes.