Detroit Dunham
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Detroit Dunham Legacy Project
Female
100 years old
Detroit, MICHIGAN
United States
Last Login: 8/12/2007
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Detroit Dunham's Interests
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| General | Select Choreography: Tropical Review, Tropics, Le Hot Jazz, Carribean Rhapsody, Bamboche, Carnavale, Cabin in the Sky, Negro Rhapsody, Aida, Pins and Needles, Tropical Pinafore, I Hear America Singing, Deux Anges, Ciao, San Remo Fesival, Ballet National de Senegal, Ode to Taylor Jone, Some Rags and Such, Faust
Select Venues: Chicago's World Fair, Broadway, Chicago Opera, North Africa, Europe, South America, Australia and New Zealand, Far East, Near East , Mexico | | Music | www.detroitdunham.blogspot.com | | Movies | Select: Stormy Weather, Carnival of Rhythm, Star Spangled Rhythm, Pardon my Sarong, Casbah, Botta e riposta, Native Son, Mambo, Libes Sender, Musica en la noche, Green Mansions, The Bible | | Television | (select) Dance in Anerica, Divine Drumbeats: Katherine Dunham and Her People, WNET-TV New York, 1980, McNeil Lehrer Report, 1978, NBC, 1939, BBC Long, 1953, National Televison Paris, 1952, CBC Toronto, 1956, Australian Television, 1957, Eye on St. Louis, KMOX-TV 1981 | | Books | A Touch of Innocence, Katherine Dunham
Katherine Dunham: Dancing a Life by Joyce Aschenbrenner
Black Americans of Achievement: Katherine Dunham
Katherine Dunham: A Biography, by Ruth Beckford
Dances of Haiti, by Katherine Dunham
Island Possessed, by Katherine Dunham
Katherine Dunham's Journey to Accompong
Katherine Dunham by James Haskins
Dunham Technique by Albirda Rose | | Heroes | Thursday, April 12, 2007
The Life of Walter Nicks
April 7, 2007
Walter Nicks, 81, Dance Teacher and Choreographer, Dies
By JENNIFER DUNNING
Walter Nicks, an internationally known dancer, teacher and choreographer, died on Tuesday in Brooklyn. He was 81.
His death was confirmed by Dr. Glory Van Scott, a colleague and friend.
Mr. Nicks was a certified master teacher of the technique of Katherine Dunham, at whose Manhattan school he had trained in the mid-1940s after early dance study with Eleanor Frampton at the influential Karamu House in Cleveland. He was associate director of dance at the Dunham School from 1947 to 1953.
An urbane, coolly impassioned teacher, Mr. Nicks absorbed a variety of technical influences after additional training with José Limón, Robert Joffrey, Karel Shook, Louis Horst and Doris Humphrey.
He danced with the Benny Goodman Jazz Revue in 1948-49 and in 1953 formed a small company, El Ballet Negro de Walter Nicks, in Mexico. He also performed in clubs and on television in Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, and studied voodoo dance in Haiti.
Back in New York, he taught at the Phillips-Fort Studio in the mid-1950s and was part of the city’s black modern-dance renaissance in the 1950s, performing in works including Donald McKayle’s “Games” in 1954. He also choreographed several Harry Belafonte television specials.
His choreography, rooted in traditional modern and jazz dancing, demanded first-rate technique from his performers in blues-jazz dances and high-powered sass, most notably in performances in 1985 by the Walter Nicks Dance Company. Mr. Nicks’s “Jump, Jim Crow” was an acid but affectionate look at black performing history.
Mr. Nicks was honored for his teaching by the American Dance Festival in 2000. In 2002, he was saluted by the International Association of Blacks in Dance for his contributions to dance.
NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE
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Detroit Dunham's Details
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| Status: | Married | | Here for: | Friends | | Hometown: | Chicago | | Zodiac Sign: | Cancer | | Smoke / Drink: | No / No | | Children: | I don't want kids | | Education: | Grad / professional school |
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About me:
KATHERINE DUNHAM: Dancing for the Legacy
DETROIT — Katherine Dunham, an internationally renowned pioneer of modern dance, culture and human rights made her final transition May 21, 2006 at age 96 in New York City. In honor of the late Ms. Dunham, The Detroit Dunham Legacy Project Presents the National Memorial Tribute--An Affair to Remember 7 p.m. July 28 at Fellowship Chapel, 7707 W. Outer Drive.
A national treasure, recognized by Oprah Winfrey as a Legend, Dunham has left a deep imprint on thousands of people around the world, leaving behind her life’s work — the Katherine Dunham Technique—an approach to dance that she defined as “a way of life”. The event will pay tribute to the technique, including spectacular live drumming, singing and dancing, featuring the Dunham dance technique, rare video clips and renowned guests. Excerpts from the writings of Ntzake Shange will highlight the evening as well. Proceeds will benefit a Detroit Dunham training program to begin in 2007. Ms. Dunham spent the last 3 decades of her life developing programs of great significance for youth, using a process she framed as, “Socialization through the Arts”.
Dunham is recognized as the founder of the first African American Modern Dance Company, a milestone she achieved in the 1930s. Her troupe traveled around the United States and to over 250 countries sharing modern, Afro-Haitian, and Afro-Caribbean dance. The Katherine Dunham troupe also performed in the film Stormy Weather (1943) starring Lena Horne, making Dunham the first to bring African dance to film. Dunham has continued to share her technique – which combines traditional modern, classical ballet, and various traditional dance forms of the African Diaspora, influencing the work of Alvin Ailey, Marlon Brando, and Eartha Kitt. In her lifetime, Ms. Dunham won numerous awards including the Kennedy Medal of Honor for her work as a choreographer, anthropologist and human rights activist.
Dunham devoted her life to service, drawing from her monumental strides in the art world to help underserved communities. She certified only a handful of instructors to pass on her technique and philosophy including Detroit’s own Dunham-Certified Teacher, Penny Godboldo, director of the Detroit Dunham Legacy Project. Other participants include professionals, educators, clergy, students and long-time admirers, framing a program in the spirit of Dunham’s desire to bring dance to the community.
For more information and to contribute to the Detroit Dunham Legacy Project send and make checks payable to Hartford Agape House, 18515 James Couzens, Detroit, MI 48235 or call 313.861.1200.
For information about Katherine Dunham and the historical impact she has spread from the far corners of the globe, visit www.katherinedunham.org.
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Who I'd like to meet:
www.detroitdunham.blogspot.com
Dunham Dance Classes
Marygrove Festival of Dance
Dunham Technique Classes
June 25-29th6-7:30p.m.
Penny Godboldo instructor
Registration 313-903-3033, $75
Information 313-927-1216 or 927-1306
Save the Dates:
The Detroit Legacy Project
presents
The Dunham Difference: Empowerment
July 14-21, 2007
Places, times and events will be announced
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