Meet Ms. Marshall, one of the world's foremost champions of the Katherine Dunham Technique, combining modern dance with the traditional movements of Caribbean and African cultures.

Ms. Marshall: Hi, everyone.

Girl: Hi, Ms. Marshall.

Ms. Marshall: Oh!

John: I'm your newest student.

Ms. Marshall: I hear we have a new student.

How do you do?

Welcome, welcome, welcome.

John: Yeah.

It's so great to meet you.

Ms. Marshall: We normally start at the barre, so they're gonna set the barres out.

We're warming up and getting ready to go across the floor and isolations and all that good stuff.

And 1, flat back, and 2, flat back, and 3 flat back.

Can we do that with rhythm?

Breathe.

Have fun, OK?

Have fun with it.

If you make a mistake, make it a big one, OK?

Ha ha!

And we'll just fix it.

1, up, other side, 2, up, other side.

Now balance.

Both feet on releve.

Find your center.

Good job.

Breathe, everyone.

Yeah.

Make sure--breathing is very important in Dunham or any dance technique.

You have to breathe through all the movement because otherwise you're gonna be gasping for air.

Um, I'd like Estrella to go with John.

John: Mm-hmm.

Estrella: OK. Ms. Marshall: All right.

So isolations.

The head's gonna go right, left, right, left, up, down, up, down.

Here we go.

John: I'm gonna be slightly behind you so I can watch your head.

Ms. Marshall: Ahh.

Go!

Always right, always right.

Very good.

Now we're gonna go to shoulders.

Oh!

[Drums playing] Estrella: Yeah!

[Drums playing] [Drums stop] Ms. Marshall: Very good.

Now I'm gonna tell you a story.

Ms. Dunham fell in love with Haiti, built a home there, built a beautiful center there, and she came up with this walk called the Dunham walk.

She would see women in Haiti with baskets of fruit.

Have you seen an image of women with baskets of fruit and maybe a chicken hanging here, some eggs?

You cannot do this with your head.

You have to keep your head nice and still and strong.

So that's the metaphor I want you to have of these women with their skirts just blowing in the wind, walking to market, so you don't want to lose your produce.

Plie, plie, plie.

Remember, you have a basket on your head.

Keep still and very easy.

Go 1, 2.

2, 3, switch.

1, 2, 3, switch.

Switch, 1, 2, 3, switch.

1, 2, 3, switch.

Breathe.

Get some water, dancers.

John: Yeah, I'm the Energizer bunny.

Need a new battery.

Ms. Marshall: This technique keeps you in good shape.

John: I got to come back.

Ms. Marshall: You have to come back.

Yeah.

This is your first class.

I'd love you to come back and experience the real Dunham Technique.

You know, Ms. Dunham taught us so much.

John: She was interested in so much more than dance.

Ms. Marshall: Oh, absolutely.

John: She was an archeologist, anthropologist.

Ms. Marshall: Yeah, she was an anthropologist.

She created dance anthropology in college at the University of Chicago, and she was a humanitarian.

You know, she cared about people that didn't have anything.

You know, she said to us that dance is a way of life.

John: Yeah.

Ms. Marshall: We should not just take one class.

John: Yeah.

Ms. Marshall: We should just make it part of our lives.

OK, dancers.

Are you ready?

We're gonna close the class with a small combination.

We're gonna add some yanvalou.

Who can tell me what yanvalou is?

Boy: The articulation of your back.

Ms. Marshall: Which means the snake.

Your body moves like a snake.

There's no bones in your body.

You're moving, undulating your body like a snake.

Together.

One, together, together.

Let's go back and try coming forward, OK?

Let's all do it together.

We're a team here.

[Drums playing] Here comes pique.

Go and a pop!

Pop!

Halt.

And that's where we're gonna end for today.

John: Ooh!

Ms. Marshall: OK. Ha ha!

John: I never moved that way before, and several decades in age separated me from my young classmates.

You'll notice me 1, 2, or 3 steps behind them pretty much the whole time, but thankfully, a young dancer named Estrella took me in hand.

It was so much fun.

Ms. Marshall: Say what?

Students: Yellow monkey jungle.

Wow, wow!

Ms. Marshall: All right.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, dancers.

Thank you.

Let's thank the new student.