What gestures does she use? [32] She was the recipient of numerous other honors including: The cherished Liberian Government Decoration, "Star of Africa"; The Scroll of Honor from the National Council of Negro Women; The Pioneer of Dance Award from the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre; Membership in Phi Beta Kappa; an honorary doctorate from Spelman College; the first Balasaraswati/ Joy Ann Dewey Beinecke Chair for Distinguished Teaching at the American Dance Festival; The National Culture Award from the New York State Federation of Foreign Language Teachers; Commendation from the White House Conference on Children and Youth.[1]. But her decision becomes clear as the dancer runs in a circle, both signifying her confusion and her final return to what she knows best upon its completion. Additional oral histories and tapes of performance can be found at the Library for the Performing Arts and the Schomburg Center. How conformity plays a part in their words and actions. In 1977, Ailey received the Spingarn Medal from the NAACP. Eventually Primus formed her own dance troupe which toured the nation. Moreover, to honor the original work was part of her objective. She choreographed this dance to a song by folk singer Josh White. For me it was exultant with the mastery over the law of gravitation. CloseMargaret Lloyd, Borzoi Book of Modern Dance (Princeton, NJ: Princeton Books, 1949), p. 271.. Another work on her 1947 Jacobs Pillow program was also rooted in black southern culture. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/476589/Pearl-Primus; Arts [13] With an enlarged range of interest, Primus began to conduct some field studies. It was her first performance and included no music but the sound of a Black man being lynched. Primus died from diabetes at her home in New Rochelle, New York on October 29, 1994. These pieces were rooted in Primus experience with black southern culture. She also choreographed Broadway musicals and the dances in O'Neill's play The Emperor Jones (1947). Based out of New York City, the dance companys mission was to reveal to audiences Black American heritage by combining African/Caribbean dance techniques, modern and jazz dance. The Oni and people of Ife, Nigeria, felt that she was so much a part of their community that they initiated her into their commonwealth and affectionately conferred on her the title "Omowale" the child who has returned home. Soon after her Pillow debut in 1947, Primus spent a year in Africa documenting dances. She does it repeatedly, from one side of the stage, then the other, apparently unaware of the involuntary gasps from the audience". Strange Fruit (1945) Choreography by Pearl Primus A piece in which a woman reflects on witnessing a lynching used the poem (Links to an external site.) On July 7, 2011 University Dancers with Something Positive, Inc. presented several of her works on the Inside/Out Stage. Removing the body from her sight signifies her inability to face reality, and the ease with which she could fall back into familiar comfort after something so horrible. She had learned how the dance expressions of the people were connected to a complex system of religious beliefs, social practices, and secular concerns, ranging from dances that invoked spirits to intervene on behalf of a communitys well-being to dances for aristocrats that distinguished their elevated social class. The Library for the Performing Artss exhibition on political cabaret focuses on the three series associated with Isaiah Sheffer, whose Papers are in the Billy Rose Theatre Division. 6-9. As a result of Dunham and Primus' work, dancers such as Alvin Ailey were able to follow suit. It toured extensively, though it was not performed at the Pillow. As we have seen, Primus began following that path in the early 1940s, at the very beginning of her career. Browse the full collection of Jacobs Pillow Dance Interactive videos by Artist, Genre, and Era. Primus believed that when observing the jumps in the choreography, it was important to pay attention to "the shape the body takes in the air". She began a life-long study of African and African-American material in the 1940s, and developed a repertory of dances emphasizing the rich variety of African diasporic traditions. Comment on the irony of Americans fighting to liberate Europeans during World War II, while racism continued in America. Her research in Africa was funded by the Rosenwald Foundation, the same philanthropic organization that had sponsored a similar research trip to the Caribbean for Katherine Dunham in 1935. In Strange Fruit (1945), the solo dancer reflects on witnessing a lynching. [19][23], Additionally, Primus and the late Percival Borde, her husband and partner, conducted research with the Liberian Konama Kende Performing Arts Center to establish a performing arts center, and with a Rebekah Harkness Foundation grant to organize and direct dance performances in several counties during the period of 1959 to 1962. Over the decades, Primuss involvement with Jacobs Pillow continued, but instead of focusing on her own performance abilities that had stunned audiences during earlier years, she turned her attention to others. During the early 20th Century, Black dancers such as Katherine Dunham and Pearl Primus used their backgrounds as dancers and their interest in learning their cultural heritage to create modern dance techniques. Primus played an important role in the presentation of African dance to American audiences. Primus and Borde taught African dance artists how to make their indigenous dances theatrically entertaining and acceptable to the western world, and also arranged projects between African countries such as Senegal, Gambia, Guinea and the United States Government to bring touring companies to this country.[24]. In 1959, the year Primus received an M.A. Margaret Lloyd, the dance critic for the Christian Science Monitor, described Hard Time Bluesin words that underscored the airborne athleticism Primus became renowned for, Pearl takes a running jump, lands in an upper corner and sits there, unconcernedly paddling the air with her legs. CloseJohn Martin, The Dance: Five Artists, New York Times, February 21, 1943, Sec. Because of society's limitations, Primus was unable to find a job as a laboratory technician and she could not fund herself through medical school, so she picked up odd jobs. (1919-1994) Pearl Primus was born in Trinidad and grew up in New York. One of her strongest influences during her early search for aesthetic direction was her intense interest in her African-diaspora heritage; this became a source of artistic inspiration that she would draw on throughout her entire career. Selected awards: Rosenwald Foundation fellowship, 1948; Libertan Star of Africa, 1949; National Council of Negro Women . One of her dances, Strange Fruit, was a protest against the lynching of blacks. [9] However, Marcia Ethel Heard notes that he instilled a sense of African pride in his students and asserts that he taught Primus about African dance and culture. Schwartz, in turn, kept the spirit of the work alive by having Jawole Willa Jo Zollar reimagine it for another group of college students more than a decade later. The dance was also appropriated and transformed by a number of artists, recycled in different versions, and it found its way into professional dance companies and community dance groups around the world as a symbolic dance expression of African cultures. The movements she makes both towards and away from the body shows her struggle with facing the reality of the situation, of both her own actions, and the truth of the world she has lived in till now. Her view of "dance as a form of life" supported her decision to keep her choreography real and authentic. Within a year, Primus auditioned and won a scholarship for the New Dance Group, a left-wing school and performance company located on the Lower East Side of New York City.[6]. Pearl Primus, trained in Anthropology and at NY's left-wing New Dance Group Studio, chose to use the lyrics only (without music) as a narrative for her choreography which debuted at her first recital, February 1943, at the 92nd St. YMHA. She was a fledgling artist during the 1960s, when the Black Arts Movement was coming into its own in America, with its message of using art to increase self-representation, self-determination, and empowerment among people of color. In this case, her powerful jumping symbolized the defiance, desperation, and anger of the sharecroppers which she experienced first-hand during her field studies. All Rights Reserved. Early in her career she saw the need to promote African dance as an art form worthy of study and performance. Read:Read the information on Pearl Primus from Margaret Lloyds chapter New LeadersNew Directions from The Borzoi Book of Modern Dance. Also by this point her dance school, the Pearl Primus Dance Language Institute, was well known throughout the world. This is a character meant to both bring out feelings of pity and disgust. Music by Billie Holiday Choreography by Pearl PrimusEditing by Brian LeungUW Dance 101 She had not yet undertaken fieldwork on the continent of Africa, but based on information she could gather from books, photographs, and films, and on her consultations with native African students in New York City, she had begun to explore the dance language of African cultures. The New Dance Group's motto was "dance is a weapon of the class struggle", they instilled the belief that dance is a conscious art and those who view it should be impacted. [13], Following this show and many subsequent recitals, Primus toured the nation with The Primus Company. Lewis, Femi. Primus learned a plethora in Africa, but she was still eager to further her academic knowledge, Primus received her PhD in anthropology from NYU in 1978. ThoughtCo, Apr. "Black American Modern Dance Choreographers." Micaela Taylor's TL Collective, Urban Bush Women, Collage Dance Collective, Joseph Wiggan, Josette Wiggan-Freund +16others, Brian Brooks Moving Company, Compaa Irene Rodrguez, Nederlands Dans Theater 2, Jessica Lang Dance +12others. Poetry is a good choice to focus on since that is the literary form Primus drew upon to inspire several of her dances. She also staged The Wedding created in 1961. 5, 2023, thoughtco.com/african-american-modern-dance-choreographers-45330. 88-89. Cal Poly State University - San Luis Obispo, California State University - Los Angeles, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, California State University, Channel Islands, Jesus and Mary College, University of Delhi, Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising, Federal University Of Agriculture Abeokuta, University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign, Interamerican University of Puerto Rico San German campus, Keiser University - Latin American Campus, London School of Economics and Political Science, California State University of Sacramento, Savannah College of Art and Design Atlanta, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, The University of Texas of the Permian Basin, University of North Carolina - Wilmington, University of South Florida - St. Petersburg, William Paterson University of New Jersey, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJ1CLB0Okug. Jazz/Musical Theatre Dance Program Ensemble. In showing the humanity of the otherwise monstrous lynchers, she shows the tension-filled situation in the South. The poem addressed the inequalities and injustices imposed on the black community, while introducing comparisons between the ancestry of Black people to four major rivers. [5] Eventually Primus sought help from the National Youth Administration and they gave her a job working backstage in the wardrobe department for America Dances. After his death Primus rarely performed although she continued to occasionally present African and African-American dances around the country. In 1942, she performed with the NYA, and in 1943 she performed with the New York Young Mens Hebrew Association. Pearl Primus made an incredible impression on many, including John Martin, America's first major dance critic. She based the dance on a legend from the Belgian Congo, about a priest who performed a fertility ritual until he collapsed and vanished. Her interest in world cultures had led her to enroll in the Anthropology Department at Columbia University in 1945. endstream endobj 490 0 obj <>/Metadata 59 0 R/OCProperties<>/OCGs[501 0 R]>>/Outlines 81 0 R/PageLayout/SinglePage/Pages 485 0 R/StructTreeRoot 108 0 R/Type/Catalog>> endobj 491 0 obj <>/Font<>/Properties<>/XObject<>>>/Rotate 0/StructParents 0/Tabs/S/Type/Page>> endobj 492 0 obj <>stream She would also share that program at the Pillow with Iris Mabry. As she moved Primus carried intensity and displayed passion while simultaneously bringing awareness to social issues. (2023, April 5). In class we will study the dance Strange Fruit by Pearl Primus. By 1943, she appeared as a soloist. -- Week's Programs", "Langston Hughes, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers", "Dr. Pearl Primus, choreographer, dancer and anthropologist", "Dances of Sorrow, Dances of Hope: The work of Pearl Primus finds a natural place in a special program of historic modern dances for women. Primuss promise as a dancer was recognized quickly, and she received a scholarship from the National Youth Associations New Dance Group in 1941. Credits & Terms of Use. [2][3] In 1940, Primus received her bachelor's degree from Hunter College[4] in biology and pre-medical science. When she was three years old, her family had moved from the island of Trinidad and resettled in New York City, but her relatives kept the memories of their West Indian roots and their African lineage alive for her, distilling them into stories that transmitted a sense of cultural and historical heritage to the young girl. Explore a growing selection of specially themed Playlists, curated by Director of Preservation NortonOwen. Ask students to observe with the following in mind: What movement elements do you see in the dances: spatial patterns (for example, straight line, circular, rectangular, lines at right angles), body shapes, and different movement qualities, i.e. http://acceleratedmotion.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/stage_fruit_lg.flv For the Bushasche project, Zollar did have videos of the version that Primus taught to the Five College students in 1984; so, of course, she would have been influenced by it. Pearl Primus continued to teach, choreograph, and perform dances that spoke of the human struggle and of the African American struggle in a world of racism. She often recounted how she had been taught Impinyuzaduring her travels in Africa, after being declared a man by the royal monarch of the Watusi people. Through this organization, Primus not only gained a foundation for her contemporary technique, but she learned about artistic activism. BlackPast.org is a 501(c)(3) non-profit and our EIN is 26-1625373. Ailey died on December 1, 1989, in New York City. The note seems to succinctly capture Primuss deep affection for and attachment to the dance: I welcome you. Strange Fruit(1945), a piece in which a woman reflects on witnessing a lynching, used the poemby the same name by Abel Meeropol (publishing as Lewis Allan). Primus was joined by Lillian Moore, who performed her own choreography and that of Agnes de Mille; Lucas Hoving and Betty Jones, performed their own work; and Jos Limn, Letitia Ide, and Ellen Love, performed Doris Humphreys Lament for Ignacio Sanchez Mejias, a work based on the poetry of Federico Garcia Lorca. . For example, her first performance at Jacobs Pillow was comprised of repertory works that drew upon the cultures of Africa, the West Indies, and the southern region of the United States. 'Strange Fruit' (1943) dealt with lynching. The Search for Identity Through Movement: Martha Grahams Frontier, The Search for Identity Through Movement: Pearl Primuss The Negro Speaks of Rivers, Pearl Primuss Strange Fruit and Hard Time Blues, Creating Contemporary American Identities Through Movement: Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Creating Contemporary American Identities Through Movement: Martha Grahams American Document, Creating American Identities Primary Sources, Thanjavur and the Courtly Patronage of Devadasi Dance, Social Reform and the Disenfranchisement of Devadasis, New Dance for New Audiences: The Global Flows of Bharatanatyam, Natural Movement and the Delsarte System of Bodily Expression, Local Case Study: Early Dance at Oberlin College, Expanding through Space and into the World, Exploring the Connections Between Bodies and Machines, Exploring the Connections Between Technology and Technique, Ability and Autonomy / Re-conceptualizing Ability, Reconfiguring Ability: Limitations as Possibilities, Accelerated Motion: towards a new dance literacy in America, http://acceleratedmotion.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/stage_fruit_lg.flv. In this performance, Dunham introduced audiences to a dance called Lagya, based on a dance developed by enslaved Africans ready to revolt against society. Considered a pioneer in Black American styles of dance, Katherine Dunham used her talent as an artist and academic to show the beauty of Black American forms of dance. She mastered dances like the war dance Bushasche, and Fanga which were common to African cultural life. Pearl Primus, trained in Anthropology and at NYs left-wing New Dance Group Studio, chose to use the lyrics only (without music) as a narrative for her choreography which debuted at her first recital, February 1943, at the 92ndSt. YMHA. Instead, it implies the difficulty in those with fleeting conscious in the South to set aside what they know for what they clearly see is terrifyingly wrong. Her 1950 performance included previously seen works such as Santosand Spirituals, which varied slightly from her earlier program. No doubt, Schwartz chose Zollar for the Primus project because she recognized their similar histories of cultural discovery through dance. Author Norton Owen notes that Shawn credited the practice of putting diverse dance offerings on a single concert to Mary Washington Ball. These artists searched literature, used music of contemporary composers, glorified regional idiosyncrasies and looked to varied ethnic groups for potential sources of creative material. Pearl married Yael Woll in 1950, Manhattan, New York. This cannon of Negro spirituals, also referred to as "sorrow songs" branched from slave culture, which at the time was a prominent source of inspiration for many contemporary dance artists. All of the works except Statementhad been restaged two decades earlier as a part of an American Dance Festival project, The Black Tradition in Modern Dance, that had been initiated to preserve important works by black choreographers. During later years, there were other projects inspired by her choreography, such as a reimagining of Bushasche, War Dance, A Dance for Peace, a work from her 1950s repertoire. Pearl Primus, the woman who choreographed and danced "strange fruit" was an African American from Trinidad who grew up in New York. She continued to amaze audiences when she performed at the Negro Freedom Rally, in June 1943, at Madison Square Garden before an audience of 20,000 people. As a graduate student in biology, she realized that her dreams of becoming a medical researcher would be unfulfilled, due to racial discrimination at the time that imposed limitations on jobs in the science field for people of color. after Primus first performed Strange Fruit in 1943, with the 1955 lynching of Emmett Till proving a catalyst for a massive reduction . She also taught at New York's Hunter College. The New Dance Groups mottoDance is a weaponencapsulated the idea that dance performance should be much more than art-for-arts-sake. Dance artists should be acutely aware of the political and social realities of their time, and they should use that awareness to create work that had an impact on the consciousness of the individuals who saw it. Primus exposure to this newfound form of activism encouraged the themes of social protest found in her works. Or is there a deeper reading to take on both this character, and of the southerners of Primuss day? She replied that she had never done so. Credits & Terms of Use. She spoke up through dance about what was happening to other African Americans at the time (as a woman, too) and had a powerful political voice that could've gotten her killed as well. After. Her many works Strange Fruit, Negro Speaks of Rivers, Hard Time Blues, and more spoke on very socially important topics. Primus was also intrigued by the relationship between the African-slave diaspora and different types of cultural dances. Biographers Peggy and Murray Schwartz point out how Fangabecame a dance that was often the central focus in her lecturing and teaching after she returned from Africa. Each time Pearl Primus appeared at Jacobs Pillow, her performances were informed by actual fieldwork she had just completed. Over time Primus developed an interest in the way dance represented the lives of people in a culture. The second timeJuly 21 and 22, 1950she had returned from Africa several months earlier. [14] These pieces were based on the African rituals Primus experienced during her travels. Margret Lloyd describes Pearls movement in her performance of Hard Time Blues, "Pearl takes a running jump, lands in an upper corner and sits there, unconcernedly paddling the air with her legs. Dunham was born in 1909in Illinois. Pearl Primus, dancer and choreographer, was born on November 29th, 1919, in Trinidad. But, here, it is also important to note the obviousthat the younger artist had explored those types of movement elements well before the Primus project took place. Femi Lewis is a writer and educator who specializes in African American history topics, including enslavement, activism, and the Harlem Renaissance. My hands bear no weapons. Test your dance knowledge with our Guess Game, then challenge your friends! She later included it in her performances at Barney Josephsons jazz club/cabaret Caf Society, which this photograph promoted. He was so impressed with the power of her interpretive African dances that he asked her when she had last visited Africa. The most famous and memorable song from New York pre-WWII political cabaret scene was Lewis Allans anti-lynching anthem, Strange Fruit, which has been recognized as one of the most influential American song. Strange Fruit is a dance of humanity and conformity in the South. The stories and memories told to young Pearl, established a cultural and historical heritage for her and laid the foundation for her creative works. If anything, thats the opposite. This thoroughly researched composition was presented along with Strange Fruit, Rock Daniel, and Hard Time Blues, at her debut performance on February 14, 1943, at the 92nd Street YMHA. In 1943, Primus performed Strange Fruit. The 68-year-old dancer, choreographer and Ph.D. in anthropology (from New York University) is much honored (the latest honorary doctorate was from Spelman College last month). In 1944, Dunham opened her dance school and taught students not only tap and ballet, but dance forms of the African Diaspora and percussion. "Strange Fruit"-- Choreography by Pearl Primus; Performance by Dawn Marie Watson. Pearl Primus, (born November 29, 1919, Port of Spain, Trinidaddied October 29, 1994, New Rochelle, New York, U.S.), American dancer, choreographer, anthropologist, and teacher whose performance work drew on the African American experience and on her research in Africa and the Caribbean. Either she continues her life as it was, putting to the back of her mind what she has seen and done or she confronts it head on and attempt to change her world. She began her formal study of dance in 1941 at the New Dance Group, where she studied with that organizations founders, Jane Dudley, Sophie Maslow, and William Bales. In this way she differed from other dance groups who altered the African dances that they incorporated into their movements. She walks towards the body slowly, with confidence, as she makes a motion of a saw with her hands, cutting down the body that challenged her world. [21] As an anthropologist, she conducted cultural projects in Europe, Africa and America for such organizations as the Ford Foundation, US Office of Education, New York University, Universalist Unitarian Service Committee, Julius Rosenwald Foundation, New York State Office of Education, and the Council for the Arts in Westchester. She does it repeatedly, from one side of the stage, then the other, apparently unaware of the involuntary gasps from the audience The dance is a protest against sharecropping. She also taught at New Rochelle High School, assisting with cultural presentations. I dance not to entertain, she once said, but to help people to better understand each other. Some four decades after her Pillow debut, she returned to lecture and participate in a special African Music and Dance project. Her meticulous search of libraries and museums and her use of living source materials established her as a dance scholar.[1]. [27] Primus athleticism made her choreography awe-striking. Billie Holiday had already made Strange Fruit a hit when she first sang it in 1939.