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Geneviève Fabre,
"Katherine Dunham on the French Stage (No Repeat of La Revue Nègre)"
(page 3 of 7)
Josephine and Katherine got on well enough with each other. However,
one eyewitness, Bobby Mitchell, noted the rivalry between the two when
Dunham showed up at the Casino in Monte Carlo with the Aga Khan wearing
"emeralds, earrings, necklace, bracelet matching. Then Josephine swept
in.... She took one look at these emeralds, and sparks flew from her eyes.
So she disappears into that hotel ... And she comes down and she's got
those diamonds on ... and she makes sure she sits next to Dunham at the
table.... And Dunham sits back with that marvelous posture of hers and
keeps adjusting the bloody emeralds."[5]
On November 25, 1948, the Théâtre de Paris in Montmartre
presented the French première of Dunham's Caribbean
Rhapsody. It was a gala performance, a benefit for a memorial to be
dedicated to Gen. Philippe Leclerc in Brazzaville, French Equatorial
Africa. A program note emphasized the piece's aesthetic quality, as well
as the cultural and intellectual approach to dance it exemplified: "the
ability to go from emotion to orderly movement in which emotion is
echoed and amplified." Further, Dunham was praised for creating "a
surprising alchemy which unites knowledge and instinct in a marvelous
manner" (Aschenbrenner, 114). For the occasion, the theater imported
jungle foliage, covering all its red velvet and gold-leaf walls with the
foliage for an exotic effect. The performance was a triumph. Parisians
celebrated Dunham as they had Baker. Clothes and fabric were designed
inspired by John Pratt's costumes and by the show in general. Artist
Andre Quellier made sketches of the company, which were exhibited on
their next tour. A sculptor had Dunham's feet cast in bronze for display
at the Musée de l'Homme. Parties were organized and attended by
international celebrities. And while in Paris, Dunham's private life
took a decisive turn—she adopted a child. She also started to paint.[6]
Amid all these activities, she was relentlessly rehearsing, taking notes
between performances, stretching to cover the costs of touring while at
the same time insisting on having all the artistic and technical
assistance she needed, regardless of cost.
On December 10, 1948, Voir magazine boasted a portrait of
Dunham on its cover; the review by Jean Louis Chardans was
characteristically titled "Danseuse es-sciences." It emphasized
Dunham's learned approach to dance but began with a reference to
Baker:
On top of 'Mon pays et Paris' Josephine Baker has a third
love, the astonishing Katherine Dunham, the tan general of a troupe of
black dancers and musicians. Four evenings on end in a box of the
Théâtre de Paris, Josephine has been jumping with enthusiasm ...
in the company of Mistinguett, Edwige Feuillère, Jean-Paul
Sartre, Armand Salacrou, and a few hundred greats of lesser
importance.
Interestingly, the French audience saw the two stars as
complementary, not rivals. On December 10, 1948, Regards magazine
devoted its front cover to Dunham's "taking Paris to the Caribbean."
Placing the review in context, Pierre Barlaier recalled La Revue
Nègre as "the bush revised and corrected by Harlem." He
wrote:
Rhapsodie Caraïbe, the show now presented by
Katherine Dunham, is really something else.... A specialist of
ethnographic studies, this young lady did not fear to go back to the
sources. She wants to show to black people exiled in North America their
true cultural bases and attempted to bring together blacks in the
Caribbean or Latin America in order to reconstruct an authentic Negro
style.
Barlaier praised the show as "magnificent with life, impudicity and
rhythm," and proceeded to list the numbers that won the greatest
applause.[7]
He also used Baker to commend the revue: "Josephine
Baker, the star of the initial 'Black Birds,' was herself, the other
night, stunned with admiration. 'I am so proud, so proud,' she said, 'as
though I was dancing.'"
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