From Humble Beginnings to Haiti

Though I have read biographical information on Katherine Dunham many times over, I never realized that she is in fact a master at all of the occupations listed: choreographer, dancer, teacher, anthropologist, AND writer. I have just completed two of her books; A Touch of Innocence and Island Possessed and am even further convinced of this woman’s boundless talents. You would never read either of these books and conclude that this is a dancer trying to write – Ms. Dunham is a natural at writing and I would recommend her books to dance enthusiasts and the average reader alike.

A Touch of Innocence is Dunham’s autobiography of her childhood up to eighteen years of age. Because she did not begin to seriously study dance until later, this is not a dance book. It does, though, give the reader insight into Dunham’s creative mind as a young person. Dunham’s childhood story is heartbreaking, from the death of her mother, Fanny June when Katherine was only 5; to the abusive father she eventually escaped as a teenager. But somehow, Ms. Dunham writes her story without self-pity despite the direct and honest portrayal of herself as a child. I think that ultimately this is a story of a child’s triumph over poverty, abuse, and racism, and we as readers are cheering her all the way. It is a story of a person who will meet her goals no matter what the obstacle.

Langston Hughes, writing for the New York Herald Tribune (and appearing on the back cover of the book) had this to say about A Touch of Innocence:

A Touch of Innocence is an absorbing family chronicle written with a gift for physical detail sometimes too real for comfort. In quietly graphic prose the growing girl, the slightly older brother, the ambitious father and the kind stepmother are pictured in such human terms that when their lives get tied into harder and harder knots beyond their undoing, one can only continue to read helplessly as doom closes in upon the household.

Ms. Dunham’s talent for the written word is further exemplified in her 1969 book, Island Possessed. Ms. Dunham traveled to the West Indies in 1936 as a graduate student with a Rosenwald Fellowship. It was her mission to study primitive dance and ritual of the West Indies and Brazil. At this time she was already a noted choreographer and dancer – she found in the West Indies endless variations on her two loves; anthropology and dance.

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