KATHERINE DUNHAM:
Dancer-Choreographer-Anthropologist-Activist
A Personal Remembrance by Trina Parks
I had the pleasure of meeting Ms. Dunham
in 1963 in New York City, at her dance
studio. I was attending the New York High
School of Performing Arts, which was on
46thSt. near Broadway. At “P.A.”
[Performing Arts] I majored in Modern
Dance (Graham technique).
A few days a week, after school, I would
walk up to the Dunham School at 42nd and
9th and take classes taught by Ms. Dunham
or one of her original company members.
Vanoye Aikens, her dance partner since the
1930s, was also one of my main teachers.
Vanoye is now in his nineties and was still
teaching up until about two years ago. I
would also take class, mostly on the
weekends, with Savilla Fort, who was in Ms.
Dunham’s original company. Ms. Fort’s
studio was very near Ms. Dunham’s.
Ms. Dunham not only taught us her
technique, but always taught where the
technique originated. Throughout her class
she would speak about the execution of
each step and what it meant, explaining
that her technique originated in the African
and Caribbean countries. She always
insisted that we should feel that we were in
those countries, not in a dance studio with
a hard floor. She would say that we should
feel the “earth” under our feet (of course
we were dancing in bare feet) because this
was the way the dancers in those countries
danced.
Also, Ms. Dunham would say that we should
feel the fresh outside air, see the sky above
us, and see the clouds, the stars and the
animals around us. We should feel the
trees, and of course we should understand
what we were dancing about. She would
sometimes take a wicker basket, hold it in
front of each dancer and tell us to hit it,
with strength, as we were going across the
floor, but not so hard so that we would put
a dent in it or our hands. That was part of
Karate exercises that she taught us.
(This is one reason I was cast as the first
African American “James Bond Girl,” playing
the character Thumper in the movie
Diamonds Are Forever, with Sean Connery
as James Bond. The character, who was a
body guard/villain, had to know karate and
also know how to dance, because the
movements they wanted called for that. It
was Ms. Dunham who taught me how to do
these movements and gave me the strength
to execute them.)
One of Ms. Dunham’s Caribbean-inspired
dances was called the L’Ag’Ya (pronounced,
“Laaugya”), meaning the Fighting Dance, in
which two men fight as in kickboxing,
showing the Karate style. This form, which
the Martinicans created, is done without
gloves and in bare feet; the dancers execute
kicks, turns, and falls.
Ms. Dunham later choreographed a 25minute piece called L’Ag’Ya, with a story
line about two men, one good and one bad,
eventually fighting over a woman. The
“bad” one goes to the witch doctor to get a
potion to make the girl fall in love with him.
The good man finds out that he has done
this to his girlfriend and challenges him to a
fight. The good man eventually wins. The
fight scene, or the la’ag’ya, is the highlight
of the piece.
Every single piece that Ms. Dunham
choreographed has a specific meaning, a
specific story, and it is always true to life.
She never just used some music or drums
and put steps to it. Most of the pieces that
she choreographed for her company were
performed with live drummers, who came
from various islands in the Caribbean.
Better known as Congo drummers
(pronounced “kunga”), they became
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permanent drummers for her company and
herself.
Americans re-named it), and it is a very
important part of their religious ceremony.
One drummer, whose name was Julio,
spoke no English, but he was the best
drummer I have ever worked with, seen or
heard since. He was also like a father to me
(I have a photo of Julio and myself, when I
was in Paris with Ms. Dunham). Julio had
the best personality, and understood
everything that Ms. Dunham said, and when
she would show the movement, he and the
other drummers knew exactly what beat
she wanted.
The Haitian people were never trained
dancers. They dance about their life, they
dance about the way they worship, they
just Dance! Their dance speaks from and
about the way they feel. But every feeling,
every step, has a certain meaning and tells a
certain story.
Ms. Dunham, at the end of her
anthropology trip, settled in the country of
Haiti. She lived with the peoples of Haiti and
learned their customs and their religious
customs. Ms. Dunham studied their religion
and subsequently they allowed her to
become what they call a “Mambo” which is
like a minister in Christian churches.
The Haitian people allowed Ms. Dunham to
learn their dances, even their most sacred
ritual dances. She was allowed to use their
steps and their original dance-moves, which
their ancestors developed centuries ago,
and these came to be included in the
creation of the Dunham Technique.
The Haitian people continue to preserve
their form of dance, which is very much
derived from their religion, with many
movements depicting the animals that are
prevalent in their country. For instance, the
“snake,” which is a very adamant
movement, is used very much in the Haitian
dance called the Yanvalu. It is the rolling of
the back, imitating the movement of the
snake. All movements in the Haitian dance
are done with pliés (bent knees). Every
movement is directed toward the earth or
honoring the sprit Domballa.
This is a Voodun ritual dance (the correct
word is ‘voodun’ not ‘voodoo’, as the
Seeing and learning this from the Haitians,
Ms. Dunham created the Dunham
Technique, combining all of those feelings
with the African and other Caribbean styles
of dance. But the base of her technique is
the Haitian form of dance.
Ms. Dunham was initially a ballet and a
modern classical dancer. When she went to
the African and Caribbean countries she
wanted to study, through anthropology, the
history of Black people in dance from the
peoples of those countries, themselves. Ms.
Dunham combined her ballet and modern
techniques with the traditional movements
of the African and Caribbean dances, mainly
the Haitian dance.
The Dunham barre is one of the most
intense and specialized barre exercises. It
can last over an hour and still not complete
all the different movements that Ms.
Dunham has created. I was taught the
Dunham barre by Ms. Dunham herself. I
always took Ms. Dunham’s class and also
studied with one of her dancers. Mr. Walter
Nicks was another of her original dancers
and was my teacher. (I subsequently
worked with Walter when I came back from
Paris with the Dunham company. We also
performed together at the Apollo show in
1964, described below.)
Some of the Dunham barre exercises
include: isolations, leg stretches, barre
push-ups, flat-back-stretches, Yanvalus
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(body rolls), lunges (back & front), and leglifts (which are held & done on flat foot &
on half-toe). That is just a few!
In 1964 Ms. Dunham asked me if I would
like to perform with the company at the
famous Apollo Theater in Harlem, in New
York City. Of cause I was overjoyed to be
asked to join the company. I was 15 years of
age at the time, the youngest member of
the company, and was still a junior at the
Performing Arts High School.
I performed two pieces, including one main
piece that Ms. Dunham choreographed,
which was called Shango! It is the actual
ritual dance, derived from the Santería
religious ceremony. That piece was about
thirty minutes long. An actual ritual can last
as long as twelve hours, or all night.
Ms. Dunham captured all of the actual ritual
and dance in those thirty minutes. I have
never done a dance as long that in all my
50+ years of dancing, and I will never forget
it. The piece encompassed all of the
Dunham technique and more. Yanvalus
were prevalent; along with twists (while in
plié and holding the wide skirts on each
end, twisting from the waist, right and left,
with the head, also while in a semi-flat back
position); jumps, turns, leg-lifts, and turns
with the leg in fourth position in front. To
dance for almost thirty minutes straight was
a feat in itself. We were also told to study
what the dance was about. You had to, or
else it would not mean anything to you as
you danced, and Ms. Dunham would know,
by the way we performed, if we actually
knew and felt the meaning of the piece.
We had to know about every dance we
were performing, what the history of it was.
You had to feel that you were in an actual
ritual, and I certainly did while dancing
Shango. That was one of Ms. Dunham's
classic pieces, which she choreographed in
the 1940s.
In 1965, Ms. Dunham asked me to join the
company in Paris, France. After graduating
that summer, I joined the Dunham
Company. We were guest dancers, and I
was the lead female dancer, in a play called
Deux Anges Sont Venu (“Two Angels Have
Come”) at the Theatre De Paris. Ms.
Dunham, after choreographing the play in
1966, closed her school in New York City
and opened one in East St. Louis (The
Performing Arts Training Center). PATC is
also a museum with all her costumes,
photos, drums and other articles that she
brought form the African and Caribbean
countries.
Ms. Dunham insisted we be strong dancers.
She wanted the female dancers to do all the
steps and exercises that were given to the
male dancers. We were also to understudy
the male sections of the dances. She
wanted us (female) dancers to be as strong
as the male dancers. Besides lifting other
female dancers, we Dunham dancers
turned out to be very strong, and this
carried over to all of our other talents,
especially for me as a singer and actress.
This was also true for Ms. Eartha Kitt (whom
I performed with in the 1980s and became
friends with until her death in 2010). She
was a Dunham dancer in the 1940s and
'50s, and she looked good and was
still strong even in her eighties.
Being so young when I was taught by and
performed with Ms. Dunham, I am the one
left, of Ms. Dunham’s last professional
company, who can still teach her original
technique to the students in Ms. Dunham’s
school in East St. Louis, where she taught
from 1966 until about 2000. Now teachers
mainly teach Dunham technique on the East
Coast. I am the last of the Dunham dancers
teaching her classic technique in California.
I also continue to teach a Dunham
workshop, which is about two hours long,
all over the U.S. I have been teaching it in
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public schools, colleges, universities, and
private dance schools since 1970. It includes
the Dunham barre, the isolations, standing
in the middle of the floor with no barre, and
the across-the-floor exercises, the way Ms.
Dunham taught me. It is a technique I will
never ever forget. A technique that many
other chorographers have used, some not
even knowing where it actually originated.
You can always tell, in someone’s dancing
or choreography, if they have learned the
Katherine Dunham Technique. It is a
technique I will teach as long as I can walk,
or even if I have to sit, as Ms. Dunham did
in her last years of teaching.
in the Palm Springs Follies, which ran for 6
years. Trina is presently working on her new
theatrical tribute show, Black Diamonds are
Forever, which she will be performing on a
world tour.
Trina Parks was born in Brooklyn, New
York, to Tennel & Charles Frazier, a famous
tenor saxophonist with Cab Calloway’s
orchestra. Trina majored in modern dance
at the New York High School of Performing
Arts. She also studied with Katherine
Dunham and subsequently joined Ms.
Dunham’s professional dance company.
Trina also performed as principal dancer
with the dance companies of Donald
McKayle, Anna Sokolow, Tally Beatty,
Geoffrey Holder, Eleo Parmare and Rod
Rogers.
Trina performed in numerous Broadway
productions as a vocalist and dancer,
including a starring role in the 10th
anniversary touring production of Duke
Ellington’s Sophisticated Ladies. Known for
portraying the first African American Bond
girl (“Thumper”) in the James Bond movie
Diamonds are Forever, she has starred in
many other movies and television dramas,
and has toured internationally in her own
singing and dancing act, appearing in clubs,
festivals, television specials, and other
venues.
In 2002, Trina was the first African
American to be a featured vocalist/dancer
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