A Touch of Innocence: A Memoir of Childhood
by Katherine Dunham
from University Of Chicago Press
Long before terms like "multiculturalism" and "world music" came into vogue, dancer, choreographer, and University of Chicago-trained anthropologist Katherine Dunham traveled to Africa, the West Indies, and South America, chronicling the spread of Africa-derived dance traditions and creating a multitude of critically acclaimed revues, including Tropics and Le Jazz Hot. Her choreography was even featured in the 1943 film Stormy Weather. But Dunham's autobiography, written in the late 1950s while she was on a sojourn in Japan, is bittersweet. She was born on June 22, 1909, in Joliet, Illinois, the daughter of a West African-Malagasy father and a light-complexioned mother of French-Canadian-Native American heritage who died when Dunham was an infant. A Touch of Innocence chronicles the first 18 years of Dunham's life: her upbringing with her brother, Albert Jr., in the white suburb of Glen Ellyn; the antagonism of her domineering father; and the experience of being raised by aunts in Chicago while her dad worked as a traveling salesman. From this piercing work, the world-famous dance icon emerges with the all-embracing allure of the everyday aristocracy that the best African American achievers radiate. --Eugene Holley Jr.
In stark prose, she tells of growing up in both black and white households and of the divisions of race and class in Chicago that become the harsh realities of her young life. A riveting narrative of one girl's struggle to transcend the painful confusions of a family and culture in turmoil, Dunham's story is full of the clarity, candor, and intelligence that lifted her above her troubled beginnings.
"A Touch of Innocence is an absorbing family chronicle written with a gift for physical detail sometimes too real for comfort. In quietly graphic prose the growing girl, the slightly older brother, the ambitious father and the kind stepmother are pictured in such human terms that when their lives get tied into harder and harder knots beyond their undoing, one can only continue to read helplessly as doom closes in upon the household."—Langston Hughes, New York Herald Tribune
"A Touch of Innocence is one of the most extraordinary life stories I have ever read . . . . The content of this book is so heartbreaking that only the strongest artistic skills can keep it from leaking out into sobbing self-pity, but Katherine Dunham's art contains it, understands it and refuses to be overwhelmed by its terrors."—Elizabeth Janeway, New York Times
"The first eighteen years of the famous dancer and choreographer's life are brought vividly to the reader in this first volume of her autobiography. She writes of what it is like to be a special, gifted young woman growing up in a racially mixed family in the American Middle West. A beautiful, touching and sometimes discomforting book."—Publishers Weekly
"As writing it is honest, searing, graphic and touching, giving us a rather heartbreaking early view of the young American Negro who was later to make a name for herself as a dancer and choreographer."—Arthur Todd, Saturday Review
Kaiso!: Writings by and about Katherine Dunham (Studies in Dance History)
from University of Wisconsin Press
“Kaiso,” a term of praise that is the calypso equivalent of “bravo,” is a fitting title for this definitive and celebratory collection of writings by and about Katherine Dunham, the legendary African American dancer, choreographer, anthropologist, and social activist. Originally produced in the 1970s, this is a newly revised and much expanded edition that includes recent scholarly articles, Dunham’s essays on dance and anthropology, press reviews, interviews, and chapters from Dunham’s unpublished volume of memoirs, “Minefields.” With nearly a hundred selections by dozens of authors, Kaiso! provides invaluable insight into the life and work of this pioneering anthropologist and performer and is certain to become an essential resource for scholars and general readers interested in social anthropology, dance history, African American studies, or Katherine Dunham herself.
Katherine Dunham: Pioneer of Black Dance (Trailblazer Biographies)
by Barbara O'Connor
from Carolrhoda Books
Katherine Dunham: DANCING A LIFE
by Joyce Aschenbrenner
from University of Illinois Press
Katherine Dunham (Black American Series)
Katherine Dunham, her dancers, singers, musicians
Dunham Technique: A Way of Life
A Touch of Innocence (Dance)
The Great One: Katherine Dunham (1909-2006) Turning Anthropology Into Art.(tribute)(In memoriam): An article from: Black Issues Book Review
This digital document is an article from Black Issues Book Review, published by Thomson Gale on September 1, 2006. The length of the article is 1214 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: The Great One: Katherine Dunham (1909-2006) Turning Anthropology Into Art.(tribute)(In memoriam)
Author: Karen Brown
Publication: Black Issues Book Review (Magazine/Journal)
Date: September 1, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 8 Issue: 5 Page: 46(2)
Article Type: In memoriam
Distributed by Thomson Gale
The legendary Katherine Dunham: still dancing to her own tune.: An article from: Ebony
This digital document is an article from Ebony, published by Johnson Publishing Co. on February 1, 2006. The length of the article is 726 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: The legendary Katherine Dunham: still dancing to her own tune.
Author: Tracey Robinson-English
Publication: Ebony (Magazine/Journal)
Date: February 1, 2006
Publisher: Johnson Publishing Co.
Volume: 61 Issue: 4 Page: 102(4)
Distributed by Thomson Gale
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