Library of Congress: I Hear America Singing [IHAS]: Katherine Dunham Collection

[Laura Gottesman]

The Music Division of the Library of Congress is pleased to announce the
release of a new Web collection focusing on the career of
dancer-choreographer Katherine Dunham on the "I Hear America
Singing" Web site http://www.loc.gov/ihas/.

The online Katherine Dunham Collection presentation
(http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cocoon/ihas/html/dunham) makes available a
selection of photographs from the Library of Congress, The Missouri
Historical Society, and Southern Illinois University; film and videotape
excerpts from Dunham's research and performing career; and selections
from the Library's Dunham Legacy Project that document the Dunham dance
technique. In addition, a complete inventory of the Collection is
included.

The Katherine Dunham Collection was created with the generous support
of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, which enabled the Library to
acquire significant portions of Dunham's archives, originally housed
at the Dunham Centers in East St. Louis, Illinois. 

Born in 1909 in Chicago, Katherine Dunham is an American
dancer-choreographer who is best known for incorporating African
American, Caribbean, African, and South American movement styles and
themes into her ballets. As a young dancer and student at the University
of Chicago, she chose anthropology as her course of study. The union of
dance and anthropology would have a profound impact on her choreographic
style throughout her career. 

In addition to a career that has included Broadway performances,
feature films, choreography, and national and international tours,
Dunham was a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors in 1983, and in 2000
she was named one of "America's Irreplaceable Dance Treasures: the first
100" by the Dance Heritage Coalition. She has continued to teach the
Dunham technique to young dancers at the Dunham Centers in East Saint
Louis, where she brings an awareness of Caribbean and African art to
area residents.

With the acquisition of the Katherine Dunham  collection, the Library
of Congress has become a premiere source of information on Dunham's
legacy--a legacy that encompasses choreographic works, technique and
teaching, performance and production, anthropological analysis of the
dance and ritual of the African diaspora, global activism and leadership
in human rights, and advocacy in the local African American community. 

"I Hear America Singing" is a new Library of Congress Web site
available at http://www.loc.gov/ihas/, which invites visitors to
experience the diversity of American performing arts through the
Library's unsurpassed collections of scores, sheet music, audio
recordings, films, photographs, maps, and other materials.  Special
presentations on selected topics highlight some of the unique and
unusual materials in the Library's collections, including jazz legend
Gerry Mulligan's collection, Civil War sheet music, and patriotic
melodies. This site is a continually-growing resource, and visitors are
encouraged to return regularly to see what's new.

Please direct all inquiries to Music Division staff by using the
division's "Ask A Librarian" Web form, available at:
http://www.loc.gov/rr/askalib/ask-perform2.html.