Week Ending June 18

TheWeekInCongress.com

Week Ending June 18, 2004

House Concurrent Resolution 62 Recognizing the accomplishments of Katherine Dunham.

Brief

Congress finds that Katherine Dunham was born on June 22, 1909, began formal dance training in her late teens and, in her twenties, revolutionized American dance by incorporating the roots of black dance and ritual know as the Katherine Dunham Technique into then current choreography.

She completed her bachelor's degree in social anthropology at the University of Chicago, was a pioneer in the use of folk and ethnic choreography, and was one of the founders of the anthropological dance movement, utilizing her dance career and public status to draw attention to issues of segregation and the civil rights movement.

In 1931 she founded Les Ballet Negre, the first black ballet company in the United States and it became known as the Katherine Dunham Dance Company, touring in more than 60 countries during the 1940s.

As a dancer, choreographer, and director on Broadway, and the first black choreographer at the Metropolitan Opera Katherine Dunham, in 1945, founded the Dunham School of Dance and Theatre in Manhattan, thereby providing a centralized location for students to immerse themselves in dance technique while also studying topics in the humanities, languages, ethics, philosophy, and drama. Twenty two years later at age 58, in 1967, she established the Performing Arts Training Center in East St. Louis, Missouri, which enrolled high-risk youth into its programs in fine, performing, and cultural arts. In 1969 she founded the Katherine Dunham Centers for Arts and Humanities and in 1977 founded the Katherine Dunham Museum and Children's Workshop.

Politics and humanity remained a focus for her when, at age 85, she went on a 47-day hunger strike in 1993 to call attention to the welfare of Haitians, thereby shifting public opinion concerning the United States' relations with Haiti, and helping to precipitate the return of Haiti's first democratically elected president.

Whereas Katherine Dunham has received 10 honorary doctorates and numerous awards, including the Presidential Medal of Arts, the French Legion of Honor, the NAACP's Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Kennedy Center Honor's Award; and

Whereas Katherine Dunham continues to be an activist, teacher, and mentor to young people throughout the world Congress resolves that it is the sense of Congress that Katherine Dunham should be recognized for her work as a teacher, dancer, choreographer, and actress, for her dedication to improving the opportunities in the arts that are available to the Nation's youth, and for her lifelong commitment to humanitarian causes around the world.

Sponsor: Representative Charles B. Rangel (D-NY)

Vote: Passed House by voice vote.