I had certain physical limitations that made me change the choreography for myself or made me more interested in choreography only rather than dancing. I have never been a person who wanted to just dance. I have always been interested in developing for other people.

They had particular success in Denmark and France. Despite these successes the company frequently ran into periods of financial difficulties as Dunham was required to support all of the thirty to forty dancers and musicians.

Dunham was an innovator in African-American modern dance as well as a leader in the field of dance anthropology or ethnochoreology. For almost thirty years Katherine Dunham maintained the Katherine Dunham Dance Company the only self-supported American black dance troupe at that time and over her long career Katherine Dunham choreographed more than ninety individual dances. Dunham had one of the most successful dance careers in American and European theater of the 20th century and directed her own dance company for many years.