The Katherine Dunham Technique DVD was produced and directed by Terry Carter. In 2002, with funds from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Library of Congress undertook the documentation of Katherine Dunham’s dance technique. Included on the original DVD are clips on breathing; contractions; fall and recovery; pull-through contraction or full body roll; second position plié with footwork; second position plié with parallel stretch in fourth position; second position plié with contraction and release variations; advanced second position leg lift; leg swings with single circle; leg swings with two circles; twelve-count leg swings; progressions including the Dunham walk—slow; Dunham walk—single step; Dunham walk—double step or triplets; fourth position contractions; rocking horse; and rocking horse with ronde de jambe; and progressions based on Haitian traditional dances including yonvalou, Congo Paillette, and mahi.
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Individual clips and chapters are available for watching online via the Library of Congress Website Here
This DVD is no longer in production or available for sale but there might be some copies available on eBay, etc.
A production of the Council for Positive Images, Inc. for the Library of Congress made possible by a grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation with additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts ©2004 Library of Congress
Producer/Director: Terry Carter Editor: Beate DeCoste Executive Producer: Vicky Risner ©2004 Library of Congress |
MS. KATHERINE DUNHAM
Chief Consultant
If posterity gives the past its due, Katherine Dunham will be remembered as the pioneering anthropologist/choreographer who introduced African and Caribbean folk movements to American dance theatre, and thereby forever altered its dynamics and direction.
For the new dance form Miss Dunham created, she formed the Katherine Dunham Dance Company. She needed to train dancers to be able physically to transmit the complex message she imparted. She found it necessary to create a series of physical exercises specifically aimed at achieving this goal.
Over time, these exercises developed into what is today an important methodology of dance, "THE DUNHAM TECHNIQUE". Miss Dunham's dual focus on anatomy and anthropology shaped a technique rooted in unique insights into the natural and potential movements of the human body, as well as the multifaceted cultural expressions of the human mind. Isolations and relationships between form and function are among the innovations it has brought to contemporary dance.
What started as the foundation for one of the most exciting dance companies the world had seen grew to become a major influence on modern-day dancers and choreographers, directly and indirectly. Jerome Robbins, Peter Gennaro, Bob Fosse, Alvin Ailey, and Garth Fagan all derived inspiration from her dynamic technique. Its original impact continues to be reflected in modern-day
productions from Broadway to Hollywood and in contemporary dance companies around the world. Few today, however, trace their influence to Miss Dunham and the Dunham Dance Company that took the world by storm in the 1940s and 1950s.
The Library of Congress considered it imperative that the essence of this great teacher's choreography be documented future generations during her lifetime and preserved for future generations. The optimal approach was the audiovisual recording of the Dunham Technique, which lies at the base of her works. Under arrangement with The Library of Congress, through major funding by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and their Katherine Dunham Legacy Project, and with additional support by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Council for Positive Images, Inc. has produced "The Katherine Dunham Technique" DVD as an educational tool to be made available as a study guide for the global community of dance teachers, scholars and intermediate- and advanced-level dancers.
For more information about Ms. Dunham, visit:
www.wic.org/bio/kdunham.htm
www.katherinedunham.org
www.imdb.com/name/nm0242281/#actress
Chief Consultant
If posterity gives the past its due, Katherine Dunham will be remembered as the pioneering anthropologist/choreographer who introduced African and Caribbean folk movements to American dance theatre, and thereby forever altered its dynamics and direction.
For the new dance form Miss Dunham created, she formed the Katherine Dunham Dance Company. She needed to train dancers to be able physically to transmit the complex message she imparted. She found it necessary to create a series of physical exercises specifically aimed at achieving this goal.
Over time, these exercises developed into what is today an important methodology of dance, "THE DUNHAM TECHNIQUE". Miss Dunham's dual focus on anatomy and anthropology shaped a technique rooted in unique insights into the natural and potential movements of the human body, as well as the multifaceted cultural expressions of the human mind. Isolations and relationships between form and function are among the innovations it has brought to contemporary dance.
What started as the foundation for one of the most exciting dance companies the world had seen grew to become a major influence on modern-day dancers and choreographers, directly and indirectly. Jerome Robbins, Peter Gennaro, Bob Fosse, Alvin Ailey, and Garth Fagan all derived inspiration from her dynamic technique. Its original impact continues to be reflected in modern-day
productions from Broadway to Hollywood and in contemporary dance companies around the world. Few today, however, trace their influence to Miss Dunham and the Dunham Dance Company that took the world by storm in the 1940s and 1950s.
The Library of Congress considered it imperative that the essence of this great teacher's choreography be documented future generations during her lifetime and preserved for future generations. The optimal approach was the audiovisual recording of the Dunham Technique, which lies at the base of her works. Under arrangement with The Library of Congress, through major funding by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and their Katherine Dunham Legacy Project, and with additional support by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Council for Positive Images, Inc. has produced "The Katherine Dunham Technique" DVD as an educational tool to be made available as a study guide for the global community of dance teachers, scholars and intermediate- and advanced-level dancers.
For more information about Ms. Dunham, visit:
www.wic.org/bio/kdunham.htm
www.katherinedunham.org
www.imdb.com/name/nm0242281/#actress
TERRY CARTER
Producer/Director
Terry Carter is an actor-producer-director with more than 50 years of involvement in theatre, television and film. His extensive, multi-faceted background in communications embraces both dramatic and documentary production, in the areas of education and entertainment.
As a young actor in his native New York, Terry Carter played leading roles on and off Broadway. In 1965, Carter left the theatre to become the world’s first African-American TV news anchor-reporter. During his years at WBZ-TV, NBC's Boston affiliate, he also served as New England television’s first opening-night movie and theatre critic.
As an actor, he is best known internationally for his co-starring roles in the classic science-fiction series BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (as "Colonel Tigh") and in the seven-year hit television series McCLOUD (as "Sgt. Joe Broadhurst").
Carter is president of Council for Positive Images, Inc., a non-profit organization he formed in 1979, dedicated to enhancing intercultural and interethnic understanding and appreciation through audiovisual communications. Under CPI’s auspices, Carter has produced and directed award-winning dramatic and documentary television programs for PBS, among them the Emmy award-winning drama miniseries ‘K*I*D*S’ and the Emmy-nominated musical documentary, ‘A DUKE NAMED ELLINGTON’, for the PBS AMERICAN MASTERS series.
TOM HURWITZ
Director of Photography
Tom Hurwitz is one of our country's most honored documentary cinematographers. Winner of two Emmy Awards and a Sundance Award for Best Cinematography, Hurwitz has photographed films that have won four Academy Awards and several more nominations. Over the last 25 years, his television programs have won dozens of awards, including Emmy, Dupont, Peabody, Directors Guild and film festival awards for Best Documentary.
BEATE GLATVED DeCOSTE
Editor
Beate Glatved DeCoste (1956-2006) was a Hong-Kong born Norwegian editor and production coordinator with twenty years experience in film and video documentary production and distribution.
Working with her husband, producer-director Terry Carter, Beate served as editor on projects in Los Angeles, Washington DC and New York City, as well as on location in the U.S. Northeast and Midwest and throughout Western Europe.
For a period of eighteen years, they collaborated on cultural and historical video documentaries, among them the ‘JazzMasters’ series, ‘Once Upon a Vision’ (a docudrama on slavery and the abolition movement featuring Alex Haley as narrator) and the international award-winning musical documentary ‘A DUKE NAMED ELLINGTON’. ‘KATHERINE DUNHAM: Dancing with Life’ is a biographical work in progress, for which Beate performed the major portion of the research and rough editing.
VIC LOSICK
Second Camera
Vic Losick's first job as a cameraman was for the BBC in New York. In the last few years, Vic has shot several long-form documentaries, two of which for the PBS American Masters series; Ella Fitzgerald, Something to Live For and Clint Eastwood, Out of the Shadows, an independent feature documentary Pie in the Sky, and a one-hour show for Martin Scorsese's Blues series, Piano Blues, directed by Clint Eastwood.
Producer/Director
Terry Carter is an actor-producer-director with more than 50 years of involvement in theatre, television and film. His extensive, multi-faceted background in communications embraces both dramatic and documentary production, in the areas of education and entertainment.
As a young actor in his native New York, Terry Carter played leading roles on and off Broadway. In 1965, Carter left the theatre to become the world’s first African-American TV news anchor-reporter. During his years at WBZ-TV, NBC's Boston affiliate, he also served as New England television’s first opening-night movie and theatre critic.
As an actor, he is best known internationally for his co-starring roles in the classic science-fiction series BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (as "Colonel Tigh") and in the seven-year hit television series McCLOUD (as "Sgt. Joe Broadhurst").
Carter is president of Council for Positive Images, Inc., a non-profit organization he formed in 1979, dedicated to enhancing intercultural and interethnic understanding and appreciation through audiovisual communications. Under CPI’s auspices, Carter has produced and directed award-winning dramatic and documentary television programs for PBS, among them the Emmy award-winning drama miniseries ‘K*I*D*S’ and the Emmy-nominated musical documentary, ‘A DUKE NAMED ELLINGTON’, for the PBS AMERICAN MASTERS series.
TOM HURWITZ
Director of Photography
Tom Hurwitz is one of our country's most honored documentary cinematographers. Winner of two Emmy Awards and a Sundance Award for Best Cinematography, Hurwitz has photographed films that have won four Academy Awards and several more nominations. Over the last 25 years, his television programs have won dozens of awards, including Emmy, Dupont, Peabody, Directors Guild and film festival awards for Best Documentary.
BEATE GLATVED DeCOSTE
Editor
Beate Glatved DeCoste (1956-2006) was a Hong-Kong born Norwegian editor and production coordinator with twenty years experience in film and video documentary production and distribution.
Working with her husband, producer-director Terry Carter, Beate served as editor on projects in Los Angeles, Washington DC and New York City, as well as on location in the U.S. Northeast and Midwest and throughout Western Europe.
For a period of eighteen years, they collaborated on cultural and historical video documentaries, among them the ‘JazzMasters’ series, ‘Once Upon a Vision’ (a docudrama on slavery and the abolition movement featuring Alex Haley as narrator) and the international award-winning musical documentary ‘A DUKE NAMED ELLINGTON’. ‘KATHERINE DUNHAM: Dancing with Life’ is a biographical work in progress, for which Beate performed the major portion of the research and rough editing.
VIC LOSICK
Second Camera
Vic Losick's first job as a cameraman was for the BBC in New York. In the last few years, Vic has shot several long-form documentaries, two of which for the PBS American Masters series; Ella Fitzgerald, Something to Live For and Clint Eastwood, Out of the Shadows, an independent feature documentary Pie in the Sky, and a one-hour show for Martin Scorsese's Blues series, Piano Blues, directed by Clint Eastwood.