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Washington (dpa) - Katherine Dunham, a US dancer and choreographer who introduced black cultural heritage to Broadway and stages around the world, has died in New York at age 96, media reports said.
Dunham founded the first self-supporting black modern dance troupe in the United States in the late 1930s, the New York Times reported.
Visiting dozens of countries, her revues based on African and Caribbean folklore brought the historical roots of black dance to a global audience.
Dunham fought racism in the US, and one of her works portrayed a lynching by racist whites in the South. She was also attracted to the culture and religion of Haiti, where she kept a home in the capital Port-au-Prince.
Dunham won some of the most prestigious cultural prizes, the Times said.
Copyright 2006 dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH
