Meet The Entrepreneur Who Inspired Alvin Ailey, Angered U.S. Officials And Transformed Modern Dance
In 1950, choreographer Katherine Dunham found herself, not for the first time, walking the line between artist and entrepreneur. The debut of her ballet Southland in Santiago, Chile, commissioned by the country’s national symphony, had infuriated U.S. State Department officials. Amid the height of the Cold War, a dance depicting a brutal lynching in the antebellum South was not the kind of image-boosting arts experience that the U.S. was seeking to promote.
Dunham had a stark choice: stop performing Southland on her South American tour or risk losing her business. For the founder of a wildly popular Black dance troupe that spent much of its time touring the world, the consequences were clear. Dunham supported some 13 dancers, five singers, four drummers, a pianist, conductor and several other staffers on the road. (She also hired a full orchestra in the locations where they would perform.) With the State Department’s ability to sponsor tours, rescind visas, and sway local news coverage, its support mattered.
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