Katherine Mary Dunham (22 June 1909 - 21 May 2006) was a mixed race dancer, choreographer, songwriter, author, educator and activist who was trained as an anthropologist.

Dunham studied ballet under Mark Turbyfill of the Chicago Opera, and Russian dancer Ludmilla Speranza, formerly of the Moscow Theater, and worked with Ruth Page, who became prima ballerina of the Chicago Opera. When she was only 21, she formed a group called Ballet Nègres, the first black ballet company in the USA.

"First Negro Dance Recital was presented by Hemsley Winfield and Edna Guy in New York, a dance composition "Negro Rhapsody" was presented at Beaux Arts Ball in Chicago by a group called Ballets Nègres. The group's teacher, choreographer and chief dancer was the young Katherine Dunham."

From 1933-36 she performed as a guest star for the Chicago Opera Company. Page wrote a scenario and choreographed La Guiablesse, based on a folk d the Negro Dance Group in Chicago in 1937. In March of that year she journeyed with her group to New York to take part in the Negro Dance Evening at the YMCA organized by Edna Guy.

She was the choreographer for the Chicago production of Run Lil Chillun, performed at the Goodman Theatre, and produced several other works of choreography including The Emperor Jones and Barrelhouse.

At this time she first became associated with designer John Pratt, who she later married, and produced the first version of her dance composition L'Ag Ya, based on her research in Martinique. "With startlingly exotic sets and costumes created by her late husband, John Pratt, the company instantly made their mark on America."

In 1939 they went to New York where she was dance director of the Labor Stage of the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union for the production of Pins and Needles.

That same year she and her troupe performed at the Windsor Theatre in Tropics and Le Hot Jazz, including her principal Haitian drummer, Papa Augustin. Initially scheduled for one show, it was so popular among audiences that they stayed on for 13 weeks.

This success led to the entire company being engaged in the Broadway production, Cabin in the Sky, staged by George Balanchine and starring Ethel Waters, a run that went on for 20 weeks in New York, with Dunham in the stunning role of Georgia Brown, before moving to the West Coast for extended performances there and then she performed in theaters and nightclubs in major cities throughout the USA between 1939-41.

Another famous role as a seductress during this period was the 'Woman with a Cigar' from her solo role in the revue Shore Excursion. A New York Times critic wrote in 1940: "Her sense of rhythm, theater and costuming and her wonderful performers - as well as her choreography and dancing - put serious Negro music on the map once and for all. Another forties critic felt the show was so hot "There were times when I heard the scenery sizzle."

In 1941, the company stayed in Los Angeles where Dunham made her first performance in movies, starring in a short film named Carnival of Rhythm, the first Hollywood dance film in color.

Other movies she appeared in during this period included Star Spangled Rhythm (1941), the Abbott and Costello comedy Pardon My Sarong (1942), and the famous break-through Black musical, Stormy Weather (1943).

Later that year, they returned to New York and in September 1943, under the management of the renowned impresario Sol Hurok, her troupe opened for Tropical Review, which was an immediate and enormous success at the Martin Beck Theatre. At the time, it was rumored that Hurok had insured Katherine Dunham's legs for 1 million dollars (she later said it was a mere quarter million).

After their success of 156 performances in New York, they went on tour throughout the USA and Canada, but in Boston, the bastion of conservatism, her Revue was banned in 1944 after only one performance, although it was well received by the audience. A reviewer for the Boston Herald Tribune regarded Dunham as an 'unconventional star' because she did not usurp the limelight.

Dunham produced other works during this period, including Rara-Tonga, her famous Rites de Passage, and Plantation Dances.

Other big Broadway hits in 1945 were Carib Song and Windy City, and she later won acclaim for her balletic Choros.

In 1946 Dunham returned to Broadway for a revue named Bal Nègre, then in late 1947 she opened in Las Vegas, the first year that the city became a popular entertainment destination.

The next year, in 1947 she went to Mexico and her dance troupe's performance was so popular that they remained there for more than 2 months. This was the beginning of more than 20 years performing almost exclusively internationally throughout Europe, North Africa, South America, Australia and the Far East, during which she performed in 57 countries, and throughout this period she continued to develop dozens of new productions.

After Mexico, Dunham began touring in Europe, where she was an immediate sensation. She opened Caribbean Rhapsody first at the Prince of Wales Theatre in London, then swept on to Theatre des Champs Elys�ces in Paris and took the city by storm and was treated as a member of the jet set and mixed with nobility and celebrities such as famous French actor Maurice Chevalier.

In 1949, she made an appearance in the movie Casbah, and also that year appeared in the first ever hour-long American spectacular televised by NBC when television was first beginning to spread across the USA. This was followed by television spectaculars on BBC in London, Buenos Aires (where she was a house guest of Evita Peron), Toronto, Sydney, Mexico, and Germany.

Dunham and her dance troupe remained outside of the USA for most of the next 20 years with the exception of several short stays for some choreography work in several Hollywood movies, including Green Mansions and The Bible, and others in Europe and elsewhere, such as Botta e Riposta, but made no further TV appearances until long after she retired.

The last appearance of the Dunham Company (on Broadway) in New York was in 1962, in the production Bamboche!, which included a contingent from the Royal Troupe of Morocco.

After collaborating with symphony orchestras in San Francisco and Los Angeles, Dunham, with Aida in 1963, Katherine Dunham became the first African-American to choreograph for the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.

In 1967 she retired after presenting a final show at the famous Apollo Theatre in Harlem, New York.

Even in retirement Dunham continued her choreography, and one of her major works was directing Scott Joplin's opera Treemonisha in 1972.

In 1978 Dunham was featured in a PBS special entitled Divine Drumbeats: Katherine Dunham and Her People narrated by James Earl Jones, as part of the Dance in America series.

Famous choreographer Alvin Ailey later produced a tribute for her in 1987-8 with his American Dance Theatre at Carnegie Hall entitled The Magic of Katherine Dunham.