Katherine Dunham

If you dance, you dance because you have to. Every dancer hurts, you know.

— Katherine Dunham

The older I grow the more I see the influence of my family on my life. I didn't always see it. It…

— Katherine Dunham

You know, this isn't theatre like it used to be.

— Katherine Dunham

I really think that aside from admiring my talent you really admire me as a person and as a woman.

— Katherine Dunham

We had maybe the greatest success of any company that I know of in Paris, and after two or three years I…

— Katherine Dunham

Aside from a few master teachers that we have had over the years, this has been a completely local talent development. But…

— Katherine Dunham

We don't intend to always keep this necessarily African oriented. Originally I had hoped to have African American Indian of this area,…

— Katherine Dunham

You dance because you have to. Dance is an essential part of life that has always been with me.

— Katherine Dunham

I have actually five honorary degrees.

— Katherine Dunham

When you have faith in something, it’s your reason to be alive and to fight for it.

— Katherine Dunham

We have a group of friends of the museum who try to raise, if they can, periodically something to help us. Of…

— Katherine Dunham

I had certain physical limitations that made me change the choreography for myself or made me more interested in choreography only rather…

— Katherine Dunham

For the kind of thing that we were showing, the budget was sufficient. As we were speaking of in Haiti, we had…

— Katherine Dunham

I don't think Ed Sullivan had anything to do with Carib Song.

— Katherine Dunham

We weren't pushing Black is beautiful. We just showed it.

— Katherine Dunham

I always believed that if you set out to be successful, then you already were.

— Katherine Dunham

A creative person has to create. It doesn't really matter what you create. If such a dancer wanted to go out and…

— Katherine Dunham

So many dancers paint. I used to paint. I started again recently. While I was dancing, I was very busy with my…

— Katherine Dunham

I could never live a nonproductive life and I feel that I have lived a productive life as far as I want…

— Katherine Dunham

I certainly feel my career was a great career because it inspired so many many people, literally hundreds of people to follow…

— Katherine Dunham

I wasn't concerned about the hardships because I always felt I was doing what I had to do, what I wanted to…

— Katherine Dunham

Don't think you are going to go on forever because you are not and begin to plan something that will compensate as…

— Katherine Dunham

I used to want the words 'She tried' on my tombstone. Now I want 'She did it.'

— Katherine Dunham

Haiti itself was also photographed, some of the streets, some of the mountains, rivers, streams, etc. were photographed before talking with me…

— Katherine Dunham

Without my husband's costumes I wouldn't have known how to accomplish what I saw in my own mind's eyes for choreography. And…

— Katherine Dunham