Marcea Daiter

Marcea Thomas Daiter, a distinguished Dance Educator, and Choreographer, holds certification in the Katherine Dunham dance technique. As the Artistic Director of Kaleidoscope of Kultures, her dance theater company and specializes in teaching dance forms of the African European Diaspora. Her approach embraces 21st-century methods with interdisciplinary perspectives, incorporating elements from critical dance studies, performance studies, post-colonial theory, and critical race theory. 

Marcea’s journey in the realm of dance began with training under Darlene Blackburn and Wilbur Bradley in Chicago, and in New York City at Harkness House, the Finis Jhung studio, and at the Martha Graham School. She continued her studies at the Katherine Dunham Institute for Intercultural Studies in East St. Louis and had the privilege of learning from former Dunham company members and Master Teachers, including Vanoye Aikens, Tommy Gomez, Talley Beatty, Walter Nicks, Archie Savage, Louines Louinis, Jeon Leon Destine, Ruby Streate, Keith Williams, and Theodore Jamison.

The breadth of Marcea’s knowledge expanded through field-study trips to Africa, Cuba, Mexico, Haiti, and the United States, visiting the Katherine Dunham Institute of Intercultural Studies and Jacob’s Pillow. These experiences inspired her instructional approach, covering language arts, curriculum writing, dance anthropology, and body soma tics.  Notably, she engaged in choreographic collaborations with Catherine Turocy, the Artistic Director of The New York Baroque Dance Company.

Marcea retired as a full-time licensed New York City dance educator from Wadleigh Secondary School for the Performing and Visual Arts. Her contributions there were pivotal in developing a four-year high school Dance Scope and Sequence curriculum with culturally relevant pedagogy. Under her guidance, the dance program received arts endorsement from the Chancellor and hosted visiting teaching artists, students from Denmark, and arts institutions nationally and internationally. Marcea is presently completing her doctoral studies in Leadership and Change with a concentration in Humanities and Culture at Antioch University.

Technique Description
Katherine Dunham was the founder of anthropological dance movement and is called the ‘Matriarch and Queen Mother’ of Black Dance. In 1940, George Balanchine collaborated with Katherine Dunham on the choreography for an all-black cast of the Broadway musical Cabin in the Sky. The Dunham Dance Company performed the dance numbers in a mix of styles that included classical ballet, modern dance, and Afro-Caribbean folk-dance. Katherine Dunham introduced African and Caribbean rhythms to modern dance. The schools she created trained and inspired such notables as Alvin Ailey, Talley Beatty, Eleo Pomare, Bob Fosse, Gus Giordano, Luigi, Frank Hatchett and Jerome Robbins in the “Dunham Technique.”