| Katherine Dunham, an African American dancer, choreographer, and anthropologist noted for her innovative interpretations of primitive, ritualistic, and ethnic dances, was born this day in 1910 in Joliet, Illinois. The first person to organize a black dance troupe of concert calibre, she was both a popular entertainer who toured the United States and Europe with a spectacularly colourful program of dance forms and a serious artist intent on tracing the roots of black culture. |