The Katherine Dunham Museum, 2014. Photograph by Paul Sableman, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Katherine Dunham, January 1956. Photograph by Phyllis Twachtman, World Telegram staff photographer, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
The term “Renaissance Man” is such a cliché term nowadays, often bestowed on individuals sorely lacking in the qualities to receive such an appellation. But every so often, a man, or in this case, a great woman, comes along who very much deserves such an honorific title. That woman is Katherine Dunham, who devoted much of the last four decades of her life to the people of East St. Louis.
Born in Chicago in 1909, Dunham soon discovered a love for dance that would shape the rest of her life. But before realizing those dreams, she would first graduate from the University of Chicago, where she majored in anthropology. Combining her academic training with her natural performance talents, Dunham created a new and revolutionary style of dance that fused traditional African dance with Western influences such as ballet. Traveling around the world, Dunham spread dance from the African Diaspora to new audiences, inventing the Dunham Method and demonstrating that non-Western culture could compete with more established forms of dance from Europe. She also traveled extensively in the Caribbean, West Africa, and eventually purchased her own private estate in Haiti, where she and her troupe could relax after major tours.
Arriving in the region in 1964 to teach at Southern Illinois University–Carbondale, Dunham soon dove into improving the increasingly deteriorating situation in East St. Louis. The city had enjoyed a meteoric rise in prosperity after the Civil War, but racial segregation and competition for jobs created tensions that exploded in the race riots of 1917. Whites terrorized East St. Louis for several days, killing dozens, if not several hundred, black residents. While the appearance of calm returned, by the time of Dunham’s arrival, White Flight and most jobs had left the city for the nearby Metro East suburbs. As the population declined, crime and poverty rose dramatically.
Dunham seized on the opportunity to purchase the former Maurice Joyce Mansion at 1005 Pennsylvania Avenue in the Olivette Park neighborhood, using it to complement her social and civil rights work in the city. Easily one of the most beautiful houses in East St. Louis, the Joyce Mansion sits in what had been one of the wealthiest areas of the city. In a town of mostly wood-frame houses, Olivette Park’s stately brick and stone mansions still show what an affluent area it once was. Designed by A.B. Frankel, the same architect as East St. Louis’s historic Spivey Building, the mansion could easily fit in among the houses of the Central West End.
Moving into a house just down Tenth Street, Dunham continued to teach dance to local residents, while beginning to display her extensive collection of African and Caribbean art in the first floor rooms of the mansion in 1977. Still on view today, the mixture of Greek Revival architecture with African masks and drums creates a fascinating juxtaposition, akin to such famous museums as the Barnes Collection in Philadelphia. Since Dunham had pioneered the fusion of different traditions of dance from around the world, it seems only appropriate that her art collection should continue to make the same connections. It’s also great to see African art on display front and center in the St. Louis region; too often such art is relegated to forgotten galleries on the lower levels of other area institutions.
This author has traveled to many artists’ homes around America and Europe, and frequently finds himself disappointed. The spirit and character of those houses’ former owners, once present within the old stone walls, is almost always absent today. But the Dunham Museum feels different; walking the halls of the mansion, one truly feels as if the great dancer and scholar could walk in at any moment. The walls still breathe with Dunham’s personality, almost a decade after her death in 2006.
The energy and passion of the Dunham Museum’s current president, Leverne Backstrom, and the rest of the board certainly can take credit for keeping the great dancer’s spirit alive. It’s not easy running a museum in the middle of East St. Louis (though potential visitors can be assured the museum only sits four blocks from an interstate exit), but the fight to keep the lights on continues. Last year, the Museum made use of a grant to replace the roof of the former carriage house, while simultaneously replacing the aging heating and cooling systems. However, even despite the careful management of the grant, the Museum still desperately needs any donations that it can get.
Backstrom is dedicated to East St. Louis; moving here in 1960 from Mississippi, she fondly remembers sneaking into Ike and Tina Turner shows down the street. Inspired by Dunham’s message of the importance of education and celebration of African culture, she sees the Museum as an important beacon of hope to the struggling residents of East St. Louis. While the Turners don’t play here anymore, the legacy of the stunning African-American performing arts culture that blossomed in East St. Louis lives on at the Katherine Dunham Museum.
The Katherine Dunham Museum is located at 1005 Pennsylvania Avenue, East St. Louis, Illinois. Admission is $10, or $5 for students and seniors, and hours are by appointment; call 618-875-3636, or 618-618-795-5970 three to five days in advance. For more information, visit kdcah.org.
Chris Naffziger writes about architecture at St. Louis Patina. Contact him via e-mail at [email protected].
