The Dunham Dance PhilosophyKatherine Dunham was a pioneer of modern dance and had a huge influence on jazz and other forms of dance. Dunham dance is particularly demanding for its practitioners. Its origins and philosophy are excerpted below, from a book on modern dance called "Introduction to Modern Dance Techniques."
Title: Introduction to Modern Dance Techniques Author: Joshua Legg Excerpt: "So much of Ms. Dunham's work," Rose stated in a 2008 interview, "was related to three ideas: intercultural communication, socialization through the arts, and form and function."
"Between 1937 and 1945, Dunham established a research-to-performance method to which her first dance company was exposed. She would use this method of scholarly inquiry as a means to recreate the memory of regional dances among her dancers and a variety of audiences in North America and abroad." |
Decades before "fusion" forms became popular in concert dance, Dunham built a training system that integrated the traditional material she observed in cultural context (both in the Caribbean and in urban areas in the United States) with ballet and other forms she had studied while still a young dancer. "We work with the same length and line as in ballet," Rose said. "We work with turnout."
"The technique presents a mental manifestation of Miss Dunham's years of observing, studying, assimilating, creating, understanding, and living. Dunham technique uses all the physical elements of dance: space, time, force, quality, isolation, locomotor, and non-locomotor movements."
The materials are rooted in primitive rhythms in dance and were always accompanied by live drummers. Dunham's work had a focused usage of polyrythm, and classes still often use more than one drummer at a time. That means that in one exercise, multiple rhythms might be overlaid so that a 5/8 or 7/8 plays against a 4/8, which may also mean that a dancer's individual body parts are working in counter-rhythms at the same time.
While Dunham technique is physically demanding and builds strong, flexible, musical dancers, those are not the system's only goals - developing an understanding of one's own culture and others is a major focus as well. To that end, Dunham designed three theoretical models that must be grasped in order to master the technique: (1) Form and Function provides an understanding of dances and singular dance movements within cultural patterns; (2) Intercultural Communication helps to gain an understanding and acceptance of others through dance and dance theater; (3) Socialization Through the Arts prepares students as artists and communicators, and encourages their civil participation and responsibility. And, in order for teachers to effectively communicate these foundations of the technique, they must experience them in their own dance experience and the everyday lives. These three theories together reinforced the idea that the technique is a way of life - not just a training system.
The technique is also based on three philosophical principles of self-knowledge, detachment, and discrimination:
"Self-knowledge encourages the dancers to look within and helps us learn the art of personal survival as artists and as people. When Ms. Dunham talked of detachment, she was talking of a stripping away of ego so that we can be completely involved and feeling - so that we are totally invested. And with discrimination, she was trying to show us when and how to make changes."
- from "Introduction to Modern Dance Techniques," by Joshua Legg
"The technique presents a mental manifestation of Miss Dunham's years of observing, studying, assimilating, creating, understanding, and living. Dunham technique uses all the physical elements of dance: space, time, force, quality, isolation, locomotor, and non-locomotor movements."
The materials are rooted in primitive rhythms in dance and were always accompanied by live drummers. Dunham's work had a focused usage of polyrythm, and classes still often use more than one drummer at a time. That means that in one exercise, multiple rhythms might be overlaid so that a 5/8 or 7/8 plays against a 4/8, which may also mean that a dancer's individual body parts are working in counter-rhythms at the same time.
While Dunham technique is physically demanding and builds strong, flexible, musical dancers, those are not the system's only goals - developing an understanding of one's own culture and others is a major focus as well. To that end, Dunham designed three theoretical models that must be grasped in order to master the technique: (1) Form and Function provides an understanding of dances and singular dance movements within cultural patterns; (2) Intercultural Communication helps to gain an understanding and acceptance of others through dance and dance theater; (3) Socialization Through the Arts prepares students as artists and communicators, and encourages their civil participation and responsibility. And, in order for teachers to effectively communicate these foundations of the technique, they must experience them in their own dance experience and the everyday lives. These three theories together reinforced the idea that the technique is a way of life - not just a training system.
The technique is also based on three philosophical principles of self-knowledge, detachment, and discrimination:
"Self-knowledge encourages the dancers to look within and helps us learn the art of personal survival as artists and as people. When Ms. Dunham talked of detachment, she was talking of a stripping away of ego so that we can be completely involved and feeling - so that we are totally invested. And with discrimination, she was trying to show us when and how to make changes."
- from "Introduction to Modern Dance Techniques," by Joshua Legg