Katherine Dunham also participated in the creations of other works, one in particular with George Balanchine, who staged her in Cabin in the Sky, which was a modern rendition of the legend of Faust.
Woman with a Cigar
As described in Katherine Dunham: A Dancing Life by Joyce Aschenbrenner, the program for the show Tropical Revue was the outcome of a routinization and therefore became a model for later Dunham shows for the Company. Dramatic ballets like “Rites de Passage” and “L’Ag’Ya” were presented in the “chauve souris” tradition, which is stated to have the “finale consisting of Americana dances like plantation dances, spirituals, and American popular or social dances…”
Dunham’s innovational technique is like no other. According to Aschenbrenner, “…it was Katherine Dunham who introduced a systematic technique incorporating African movement; she and her company launched a series of dance programs that changed the course of modern dance and provided opportunities for black dancers.”