Dance Ensemble from Acaraje, Pink Cotton Performance Dress, Shawl, and Turban
The dress is a voluminous and multilayered costume designed by
John Pratt, Katherine Dunham’s husband. John Pratt designed Dunham’s
costumes and street clothes. During their Paris tour, it is said that his
costume designs even inspired French fashions (Aschenbrenner). According
to Zita Allen, “Dunham charmed and dazzled audiences with brilliantly
staged, exquisitely costumed, energetic productions based largely on ethnographic
material gathered on field trips to Jamaica, Trinidad, and Martinique.
Picture a pretty woman
with sparkling eyes and skin the color of café au
lait gliding across the stage in a sea of ruffles disguised
as a John
Pratt costume.”
