Joanna Dee Das's Books

Katherine Dunham

Dance and the African Diaspora

By: Joanna Dee Das

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Katherine Dunham

Dance and the African Diaspora

By: Joanna Dee Das

One of the most important dance artists of the twentieth century, dancer and choreographer Katherine Dunham (1909-2006) created works that thrilled audiences the world over. As an African American woman, she broke barriers of race and gender, most notably as the founder of an important dance company that toured the United States, Latin America, Europe, Asia, and Australia for several decades. Through both her company and her schools, she influenced generations of performers for years to come, from Alvin Ailey to Marlon Brando to Eartha Kitt. Dunham was also one of the first choreographers to conduct anthropological research about dance and translate her findings for the theatrical stage. Katherine Dunham: Dance and the African Diaspora makes the argument that Dunham was more than a dancer-she was an intellectual and activist committed to using dance to fight for racial justice. Dunham saw dance as a tool of liberation, as a way for people of African descent to reclaim their history and forge a new future. She put her theories into motion not only through performance, but also through education, scholarship, travel, and choices about her own life. Author Joanna Dee Das examines how Dunham struggled to balance artistic dreams, personal desires, economic needs, and political commitments in the face of racism and sexism. The book analyzes Dunham's multiple spheres of engagement, assessing her dance performances as a form of black feminist protest while also presenting new material about her schools in New York and East St. Louis, her work in Haiti, and her network of interlocutors that included figures as diverse as ballet choreographer George Balanchine and Senegalese president Léopold Sédar Senghor. It traces Dunham's influence over the course of several decades from the New Negro Movement of the 1920s to the Black Power Movement of the late 1960s and beyond. By drawing on a vast, never-utilized trove of archival materials along with oral histories, choreographic analysis, and embodied research, Katherine Dunham: Dance and the African Diaspora offers new insight about how this remarkable woman built political solidarity through the arts.

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Page Count

289

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0190264888

ISBN 13

9780190264888

Katherine Dunham

Dance and the African Diaspora

By: Joanna Dee Das

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Katherine Dunham

Dance and the African Diaspora

By: Joanna Dee Das

This new biography of American dancer and choreographer Katherine Dunham draws upon a vast, never-utilized archival record to show how she was more than a dancer and anthropologist, but also an intellectual and activist.

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289

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Oxford University Press

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ISBN 10

019026487X

ISBN 13

9780190264871

The Significance of the Frontier in American History

By: Joanna Dee Das,Joseph Tendler

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The Significance of the Frontier in American History

By: Joanna Dee Das,Joseph Tendler

Frederick Jackson Turner's 1893 essay on the history of the United States remains one of the most famous and influential works in the American canon. That is a testament to Turner's powers of creative synthesis; in a few short pages, he succeeded in redefining the way in which whole generations of Americans understood the manner in which their country was shaped, and their own character moulded, by the frontier experience. It is largely thanks to Turner's influence that the idea of America as the home of a sturdily independent people – one prepared, ultimately, to obtain justice for themselves if they could not find it elsewhere – was born. The impact of these ideas can still be felt today: in many Americans' suspicion of "big government," in their attachment to guns – even in Star Trek's vision of space as "the final frontier." Turner's thesis may now be criticised as limited (in its exclusion of women) and over-stated (in its focus on the western frontier). That it redefined an issue in a highly impactful way – and that it did so exceptionally eloquently – cannot be doubted.

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Page Count

106

Publisher

CRC Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1351351648

ISBN 13

9781351351645

An Analysis of Frederick Jackson Turner's The Significance of the Frontier in American History

By: Joanna Dee Das,Joseph Tendler

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An Analysis of Frederick Jackson Turner's The Significance of the Frontier in American History

By: Joanna Dee Das,Joseph Tendler

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CRC Press

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ISBN 10

1351353438

ISBN 13

9781351353434

Book's by Joanna Dee Das

Katherine Dunham

Katherine Dunham

Katherine Dunham

Katherine Dunham

The Significance of the Frontier in American History

The Significance of the Frontier in American History

An Analysis of Frederick Jackson Turner's The Significance of the Frontier in American History

An Analysis of Frederick Jackson Turner's The Significance of the Frontier in American History

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