Ms. Fanny Taylor Dunham

Her parents were Albert Millard Dunham, a dry cleaner, and Fanny Taylor Dunham, a schoolteacher.
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Ms. Dunham began dancing in high school and first studied ballet in 1928.An anthropology major, she earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Chicago and later did graduate work there.She formed her first dance company, Ballet Negre, in 1931.It would later be known as the Negro Dance Group and ultimately become famous as the Katherine Dunham Dance Company.Two years later, Ms. Dunham opened her first dance school, in Chicago.

Though she made her New York debut in 1937, Ms. Dunham's popular breakthrough came three years later with her appearance in the Broadway musical "Cabin in the Sky."She had been recruited for the production by no less a figure than choreographer George Balanchine.

Ms. Dunham, who gave up regular performing in 1963, disbanded the Dunham company in the early '60s.For many years, she taught at Southern Illinois University.

Ms. Dunham was the author of several books, including an autobiography, "A Touch of Innocence."

"I wonder what it is in my character that makes me see something that has to be done and then go ahead and do it," Ms. Dunham said in that 1988 interview."People have asked me, 'But didn't you know that this or that would get in your way?' And the answer is, 'No, I didn't.'"

In her later years, Ms. Dunham depended on grants and the kindness of celebrities, artists and former students to pay her day-to-day expenses.
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Ms. Dunham was married to theater designer John Thomas Pratt for 49 years before his death in 1986.

Her parents were Albert Millard Dunham, a dry cleaner, and Fanny (Taylor) Dunham, a schoolteacher.
...
Ms. Dunham began dancing in high school and first studied ballet in 1928.An anthropology major, she earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Chicago and later did graduate work there.She formed her first dance company, Ballet Negre, in 1931.It would later be known as the Negro Dance Group and ultimately become famous as the Katherine Dunham Dance Company.Two years later, Ms. Dunham opened her first dance school, in Chicago.

Although she made her New York debut in 1937, Ms. Dunham's popular breakthrough came three years later with her appearance in the Broadway musical "Cabin in the Sky."
...
Ms. Dunham, who gave up regular performing in 1963, disbanded the Dunham Company in the early '60s.For many years, she taught at Southern Illinois University.

Ms. Dunham was the author of several books, including an autobiography, "A Touch of Innocence."

In 2002, she attended a tribute to her work put on at Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, in Becket.

"I wonder what it is in my character that makes me see something that has to be done and then go ahead and do it," Ms. Dunham said in that 1988 interview."People have asked me, 'But didn't you know that this or that would get in your way?' And the answer is, 'No, I didn't."'

Ms. Dunham's husband, John Pratt, died in 1986.