Her dance group performed in many Broadway musicals, and she also choreographed and appeared in many ballets, stage shows and films, including the movies, ‘Pardon My Sarong’ (1942) and ‘Stormy Weather’ (1943). In 1945, she opened the Katherine Dunham School of Dance and Theatre in New York City. The curriculum included courses in dance, drama, performing arts, applied skills, humanities, cultural studies, and Caribbean research. In 1950, she faced racism when her troops were refused rooms in a first-class hotel in Brazil. She publicized the incident which resulted in the introduction of the ‘Afonso Arinos Law’ that made racial discrimination in public places a felony in Brazil. She also wrote some books such as ‘A Touch of Innocence: Memoirs…show more content… Nijinsky was a Russian ballet dancer and choreographer of Polish decent, and cited as the greatest male dancer of the early 20th century. He was celebrated for his virtuosity and for the depth and intensity of his characterizations. Nijinsky was one of the most gifted male dancers in history. His ability to perform seemingly gravity-defying leaps was legendary. . He was born on March 12, 1889 in Kiev, Ukraine son of Polish dancers Tomasz Nijinsky and Eleonora Bereda. In 1900, he joined the Imperial Ballet School, where he studied under Enrico Cecchetti, and Nicholas Legat. At only 18 years old he was given a string of leads. In 1910, a fellow Imperial Ballet dancer, Mathilde Kschessinskaya, selected Nijinsky to dance in a revival of Marius Petipa's Le Talisman, during which Nijinsky created a sensation in the role of the Wind God Vayou. Nijinsky met Sergei Diaghilev, a celebrated and highly innovative producer of ballet and opera as well as art exhibitions, who concentrated on promoting Russian visual and musical art particularly in Paris. In 1909, Diaghilev took his dance company, the Ballets Russes, to Paris, with Nijinsky and Anna Pavlova as the leads. The show was a huge success. Nijinsky's talent showed in Fokine's pieces such as “Le Pavillon d'Armide”, “Cleopatra” and “The Feast”. His partnership with Tamara Karsavina, also of the Mariinsky Theatre, was legendary,…show more content… Dunham’s style was based more on African traditional technique and her style of dance was meant to show the beauty of black dance as well as bring awareness. Nijinsky’s style although very technically challenging was more based on a forceful, sexual nature that as his career went on became out of control and lost some context. However, what I love about these two choreographers is, they are both known for being passionate for the work that they produce and despite what anyone may have thought of there company or style, they remained true to their choreography. I relate to Dunham because I love that she used an African style of dance to show that black dance is indeed beautiful which is something I personally wish I knew more growing up so I could comfortable in my own skin as I dance and not be judge because my African American feet didn’t look like the dancers around me. I also love Nijinsky’s work because despite how some of his work may have made other feel, his work was truly a representation of himself and how he perceived certain things. The similarities and differences in these two choreographers are definite, however, one thing that stand out is they both take a walk of the same road by choosing to represent what they believe in and allow that to shape the dance
