Katherine Dunham (1909-2006) was an American dancer, choreographer, and activist known for her work in the field of dance anthropology, as well as founding her own dance company and school.

Dunham attended the University of Chicago, where she studied dances of the African diaspora in the Caribbean as part of her degree work in social anthropology. She earned a bachelor's degree in anthropology in 1936, and was pursuing a masters degree in her work before deciding to dedicate herself fully to dance and performing. Her work in the field though, was foundational in the development of Dance Anthropology as a field of study within the anthropological landscape.

Dunham first formed a dance troupe in 1930 as a student dancer called Ballet Nègre, which later became the Negro Dance Group and then the Katherine Dunham Company. The group, which toured extensively internationally, was one of the first African-American modern dance companies and the only self-supported American black dance troupe during that period.

In 1946, Dunham opened and directed The Katherine Dunham School of Arts and Research in New York City, where she developed and taught the Katherine Dunham Technique combining modern dance, Caribbean folk movement, and ballet. In 1967 she opened the Performing Arts Training Center (PATC) in East St. Louis, Illinois to bolster community development in the economically depressed black community there. Her later life was focused on activism within this community, as well as in support of the country and peoples of Haiti.