August Dunham

In August Dunham receives a Ph.B. degree (bachelor of philosophy degree) from the University of Chicago.Her major field of study is recorded as social anthropology.

1937Dunham and her company make a one-time appearance at the Young Men's Hebrew Association (YMHA) on Ninety-second Street in New York City, joining African and African-American modern dancers Edna Guy, Alison Burroughs, Clarence Yates, and Asadata Dafora for A Negro Dance Evening.
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On the first half of the program, Dunham presents a suite of West Indian dances.In the second half of the program, "Modern Trends," Dunham presents Tropic Death, which casts Talley Beatty as the fugitive from a lynch mob.
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Dunham and her dancers premiere Tropics at the Abraham Lincoln Center in Chicago.The suite of dances includes Woman with a Cigar.

1938Dunham choreographs and produces her first full-length ballet, L'Ag'Ya, which debuts in January at the Federal Theater, Chicago.Based on a fable of love, jealousy, and revenge, culminating in a staged version of the ag'ya, the fighting dance of Martinique, Dunham's ballet became part of the repertory of Ballet Fedré, a component of the Federal Theater Project, at the Great Northern Theater.

Tropics is performed at the Goodman Theater in Chicago.

Dunham is named director of the Negro Unit of the Chicago branch of the Federal Theater Project and stages dances in several Chicago productions, including Run Li'l Chil'lun and The Emperor Jones.

Dunham choreographs A las Montanas, one of her first solos, and dances it at the Abraham Lincoln Center in Chicago.

Dunham submits a thesis entitled "Dances of Haiti: Their Social Organization, Classification, Form, and Function" to the Department of Anthropology at the University of Chicago in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a Master of Arts degree.

Dunham choreographs and performs in Barrelhouse, a duet.It is one of her earliest works of Americana. (Read notes on Barrelhouse).

Dunham choreographs Son (Sound) and, in October 1938, introduces it into the suite Primitive Rhythms.On a Caribbean island plantation, a slave sings a love song while his companions work.