One of our recent Estate Clearance clients included a dancer who performed with the Katherine Flowers Dance Company and the Katherine Dunham Dance Company. Among the personal property in the apartment was a vast collection of notes, music, diaries, books, dance sketches, news articles, class notes, and original manuscripts of Katherine Flowers. In collaboration with the clients’ family and estate, we arranged to have 22 cartons of this archival material donated to Northwestern University, alma mater to the client, Flowers, and Dunham. These items were featured in a recent exhibition at NWU honoring Black History. We are particularly gratified because prior to our discovering this material, there was no information available about Katherine Flowers either on the internet or in performing arts museums and archives.
Born in the Chicago area and educated at both Northwestern and Columbia Universities in physical education, dance, and anthropology, Katherine Flowers was a pioneer in discovering, documenting, and choreographing historical African American dances dating back to the mid 19th century. She was a tireless educator, forming the Katherine Flowers Dance Company which travelled and performed extensively in Latin America and the U.S.A. She was also a devoted collaborater with Katherine Dunham, beginning in the 1940’s.
Program from the 1979 Gala Performance at Carnegie Hall honoring the lifetime contributions by Katherine Flowers and Katherine Dunham.
