Primus made her Broadway debut on October 4, 1944, at the Bealson Theatre. She has gone all the way around back to the starting point, eager to put this terrifying and eye-opening experience behind her. Primus died from diabetes at her home in New Rochelle, New York on October 29, 1994. Alive, Pearl Primus, Strange Fruit Choreographed by Pearl Primus, this solo piece portrays a woman's reaction to a lynching. Then go to part two below for response details. Primus also included dances from Africa and the West Indies, when she appeared at the Pillow for the first time. [28] They were divorced by 1957. Or is there a deeper reading to take on both this character, and of the southerners of Primuss day? In class we will study the dance Strange Fruit by Pearl Primus. Your donation is fully tax-deductible. In 1984, Primus taught the dance to students of the Five College Dance Department, where Peggy Schwartz was the director. Posted 21st August 2015 by Mark Anthony Neal. 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. Primus played an important role in the presentation of African dance to American audiences. My hands bear no weapons. 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. A small donation would help us keep this available to all. [1], The significance of Primus' African research and choreography lies in her presentation of a dance history which embraces ethnic unity, the establishment of an articulate foundation for influencing future practitioners of African dance, the presentation of African dance forms into a disciplined expression, and the enrichment of American theater through the performance of African dance. For that project, Primus taught the solos to Kim Bears, a young dancer from the Philadelphia Dance Company (Philadanco), and it was Bears who restaged them for the 2011 performance at the Pillow. The stories and memories told to young Pearl, established a cultural and historical heritage for her and laid the foundation for her creative works. In 1953 Primus returned to Trinidad to study dance there, and met her husband, Percival Borde. Primuss promise as a dancer was recognized quickly, and she received a scholarship from the National Youth Associations New Dance Group in 1941. Femi Lewis is a writer and educator who specializes in African American history topics, including enslavement, activism, and the Harlem Renaissance. 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. She soon began performing professionally both as a soloist and in dance groups around New York. Lewis, Femi. Primus, however, found her creative impetus in the cultural heritage of the African American. Allan, the pen name of teacher AbelMeeropol, was a frequently contributor to the TAC Cabarets, most often in collaboration with Earl Robinson. Soon after she began studying at the New Dance Group, Primus started to choreograph her own works and distinguish herself as a compelling solo performer with a distinctively visceral approach to movement that was full of explosive energy and emotional intensity. 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. Photograph by Myron Ehrenberg, October 25, 1945, provided by [press representative] Ivan Black for Caf Society. Jerome Robbins Dance Division. J z7005;09pl=*}7ffN$Lfh:L5g=OmM4 hrH^ B @A1" % t!L |`00\dIILj^PY[~@*F Iy These artists searched literature, used music of contemporary composers, glorified regional idiosyncrasies and looked to varied ethnic groups for potential sources of creative material. According to John Martin of The New York Times, Primus' work was so great that she was "entitled to a company of her own." Primus continued to study anthropology and researched dance in Africa and its Diaspora. Political cabaret became popular at the end of the decade, created by writers, songwriters, comics, musicians and dancers, many of whom were veterans of Federal Theatre Project companies. [31], In 1991, President George H. W. Bush honored Primus with the National Medal of Arts. 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. In Strange Fruit (1945), the solo dancer reflects on witnessing a lynching. Primus' approach to developing a movement language and to creating dance works parallels that of Graham, Holm, Weidman, Agnes de Mille and others who are considered to be pioneers of American modern dance. She does it repeatedly, from one side of the stage, then the other, apparently unaware of the involuntary gasps from the audience". The choreography for this piece, which was made in protest of sharecropping, truly represented Primus movement style. In 1974, Primus staged Fanga created in 1949 which was a Liberian dance of welcome that quickly made its way into Primus's iconic repertoire. [27] Primus athleticism made her choreography awe-striking. Primus was at a point in her career where the momentum of her early years continued to develop, and she widened her horizons as a performer and a choreographer. Test your dance knowledge with our Guess Game, then challenge your friends! She presented Three SpiritualsMotherless Child, Goin to tell God all my Trouble, and In the Great Gettin-up Mornin. Pearl Primus was born in Trinidad on November 29, 1919, to Edward and Emily Jackson Primus. Black American Modern Dance Choreographers. She refuses to face reality. 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. Her 1950 performance included previously seen works such as Santosand Spirituals, which varied slightly from her earlier program. A dancer, choreographer, and proselytizer for African dance, Pearl Primus (1919-1994) trained at the New Dance Group and worked with Asadata Dafora. [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. Hard Time Blues(1945) comments on the poverty of African American sharecroppers in the South. This blog, and the Political Cabaret exhibition,was informed byresearch by the Performing Arts Museum's summer interns: Brittany Camacho, Colorado College, and Kameshia Shepherd, Bank Street College of Education, Program in Museum Education. https://www.thoughtco.com/african-american-modern-dance-choreographers-45330 (accessed May 1, 2023). New York Times dance critic John Martinwho would become a devoted champion of the young dancer over the yearssingled Primus out as a remarkably gifted artist; and he went on to comment positively on her technique, her stunning vitality, and her command of the stage. Instead of growing twisted like a gnarled tree inside myself, I am able to dance out my anger and my frustrations. Expand: Can you think of examples of social commentary and protest as reflected in popular culture today? She would also share that program at the Pillow with Iris Mabry. In 1943, Primus performed Strange Fruit. 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. Strange Fruit is a dance of humanity and conformity in the South. This piece was embellished with athletic jumps that defied gravity and amazed audiences. 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. Zollars project involving Primuss work revealed a number of remarkable connections between the artists. African Ceremonial was re-envisioned for the group's performance. Billie Holiday had already made Strange Fruit a hit when she first sang it in 1939. She posed as a migrant worker with the aim "to know [her] own people where they are suffering the most. One of her dances, Strange Fruit, was a protest against the lynching of blacks. [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. By John Perpener Explore by Chapter The Early StagesDiscovering Cultural OriginsExcerpts From An African JourneyTouring InternationallyThe Later Years The Early Stages They were artistic innovators against poverty, fascism, hunger, racism and the manifold injustices of their time. CloseThe New Dance Group Gala Concert, p. 6. Soon after he learned Hortons technique, he became artistic director of the company. Primus lectured widely and taught courses in anthropology and ethnic dance on many college campuses including the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. ClosePeggy Schwartz and Murray Schwartz, The Dance Claimed Me: A Biography of Pearl Primus (New Haven, CT and London: Yale University Press, 2011), pp. She preserved traditional movements but added her own style which includes modified pelvic rotations and rhythmic variations. In her program she also presented Three Spirituals entitled "Motherless Child", "Goin to tell God all my Trouble", and "In the Great Gettin-up Mornin." Beginning in 1928 and continuing over the next two decades, European-American artist Helen Tamiris explored the African-American folk music in several dances that comprised her suite, Negro Spirituals. But instead she decided to conduct an 18-month research and study tour of the Gold Coast, Angola, Cameroons, Liberia, Senegal and the Belgian Congo. Pearl Primus, the woman who choreographed and danced "strange fruit" was an African American from Trinidad who grew up in New York. In 1965, for example, she choreographed four out of the five works performed by Percival Borde and CompanyBeaded Mask, Earth Magician, War Dance,and Impinyuza. In this performance, Dunham introduced audiences to a dance called Lagya, based on a dance developed by enslaved Africans ready to revolt against society. She replied that she had never done so. Primus was also intrigued by the relationship between the African-slave diaspora and different types of cultural dances. Early in her career she saw the need to promote African dance as an art form worthy of study and performance. In the summer of 1944, Primus visited the Deep South to research the culture and dances of Southern blacks. Pearl discovered her innate gift for movement, and she was quickly recognized for her abilities. Primus was so well accepted in the communities in her study tour that she was told that the ancestral spirit of an African dancer had manifested in her. hbbd``b`@*$@7H4U } %@b``Mg Explore a growing selection of specially themed Playlists, curated by Director of Preservation NortonOwen. 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. Primus continued to study anthropology and researched dance in Africa and its Diaspora. Primus work continued to push boundaries as she re-developed another one of her debut pieces, Hard Time Blues (1945). When she . It was an effort to guide the Western world to view African dance as an important and dignified statement about another way of life. What gestures does she use? The score for the dance is the poem by the same name by Abel Meeropol (publishing as Lewis Allan). This dance was based on the poem by Lewis Allan about a lynching. Pearl Eileen Primus (November 29, 1919 October 29, 1994) was an American dancer, choreographer and anthropologist. However, Primuss original works continued to be performed at the festival. But in reality, this capability for both decency and the terrible, for both empathy and forced apathy, is incredibly human. Another connection between the two artists was their unswerving commitment to use their creative endeavors in the name of social and political change. In 1959, the year Primus received an M.A. 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. 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. Her work has also been reimagined and recycled into different versions by contemporary artists. One of Primus most notable students was writer and civil rights activist Maya Angelou. Move: Set up a movement experience that allows students to explore gestures and movement qualities present in Primuss work and that students might relate to contemporary protest. And the falls, falling hard and staying for long as if physically unable to reach up with ease, shows her immediate guilt after realizing what has happened. light/strong, fast/slow, direct/indirect? "Strange Fruit"-- Choreography by Pearl Primus; Performance by Dawn Marie Watson. She choreographed this dance to a song by folk singer Josh White. If anything, thats the opposite. Research:Find American literature that reflects themes of social and political protest. She used her dancing as an art to express the many issues revolving around black culture. "[16] Primus depicts the aftermath of the lynching through the remorse of the woman, after she realized the horrible nature of the act. 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. 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. In 1946, Primus continued her journey on Broadway was invited to appear in the revival of the Broadway production Show Boat, choreographed by Helen Tamiris. -- 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. She made sure to preserve the traditional forms of expression that she observed. Choreographed pieces include Strange Fruit, Hard Times Blues, The Negro Speaks of Rivers, Shouters of Sobo, and tmpinyuza. Primus chose to create the abstract, modern dance in the character of a white woman, part of the crowd that had watched the lynching. Primus' work was a reaction to myths of savagery and the lack of knowledge about African people. Moreover, she developed an overarching interest in the cultural connections between dance and the lives of the descendants of African slaves who had been taken to widespread parts of the world. The piece is set to the words of a power off the same title written by Abel Meeropol, under the pseudonym Ballet Started in Italy Classical Ballet A traditional, formal style of ballet that adheres to classical ballet techniques This piece served as an introduction to her swelling interest in Black heritage. Strange Fruit Pearl Primus was an.. anthropologist like Katherine Dunham and her research was funded by the Rosenwald Foundation when she went to Africa to study dances of the African Diaspora What was the dance Strange Fruit about? in education from New York University, she traveled to Liberia, where she worked with the National Dance Company there to create Fanga, an interpretation of a traditional Liberian invocation to the earth and sky. The point of this character, this southern white woman, is not to display only a sympathetic character. Primus began her formal study of dance with the New Dance Group in 1941, she was the group's first black student. 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. After gaining much praise, Primus next performances began in April 1943, as an entertainer at the famous racially integrated night club, Cafe Society Downtown. Choreographer and dancer Alvin Ailey often receives credit for mainstreaming modern dance. 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). Test your dance knowledge with our Guess Game, then challenge your friends! [1], Born in Port of Spain, Trinidad, Pearl Primus was two years old when she moved with her parents, Edward Primus and Emily Jackson, to New York City in 1921. Primus was raised in New York City, and in 1940 received her bachelors degree in biology and pre-medical science from Hunter College. Dunham conducted research throughout Haiti, Jamaica, Trinidad, and Martinique to develop her choreography. She died in 2006 in New York City. She then became the last recipient of the major Rosenwald fellowships and received the most money ($4000) ever given. Their dignity and beauty bespeak an elegant past. CloseProgram, Jacobs Pillow Dance Festival, Season 1947.Another program note for Dance of Strengthstated, The dancer beats his muscles to show power. After his death Primus rarely performed although she continued to occasionally present African and African-American dances around the country. Lewis, Femi. Pearl Primus died on October 29th, 1994, in New Rochelle, New York. 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. [13] With an enlarged range of interest, Primus began to conduct some field studies. She is also a major contributor in a book entitled African Dance - edited by Kariamu Weish Asante from which I have drawn some observations. Her efforts were also subsidized by the United States government who encouraged African-American artistic endeavors. [15] Primus dance to this poem boldly acknowledged the strength and wisdom of African Americans through periods of freedom and enslavement. Her interest in world cultures had led her to enroll in the Anthropology Department at Columbia University in 1945. [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. In 1947 Primus joined Jacob's Pillow and began her own program in which she reprised some of her works such as Hard Time Blues. Throughout her career, Primus used her craft to express social ills in United States society. Under the direction of Samuel Pott, the New Jersey-based Nimbus Dance Works focuses on the intersection between high-level dance and innovative ways of involving communities and audiences. Primus explored African culture and dance by consulting family, books, articles, pictures, and museums. %PDF-1.6 % In 1953 Primus returned to Trinidad to study dance there, and met her husband, Percival Borde. Then, she was asked to choreograph a Broadway production called Calypso whose title became Caribbean Carnival. The New York Public Library. Like Primus, Dunham was not only a performer but also a dance historian. Dunham made her debut as a performer in 1934 in the Broadway musical Le Jazz Hot and Tropics. About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features NFL Sunday Ticket Press Copyright . . "[11] John Martin admired her stage presence, energy, and technique. [7] The organization trained dancers like Primus to be aware of the political and social climate of their time. ThoughtCo, Apr. Pearl Primus A dancer, choreographer, and proselytizer for African dance, Pearl Primus (1919-1994) trained at the New Dance Group and worked with Asadata Dafora. CloseThe Dance Claimed Me, p. 98. As a result of Dunham and Primus' work, dancers such as Alvin Ailey were able to follow suit. She based the dance on a legend from the Belgian Congo, about a priest who performed a fertility ritual until he collapsed and vanished. "The dance begins as the last person begins to leave the lynching ground and the horror of what she has seen grips her, and she has to do a smooth, fast roll away from that burning flesh. [9] Dafora began a movement of African cultural pride which provided Primus with collaborators and piqued public interest in her work.[10]. ''[14] She observed and participated in the daily lives of black impoverished sharecroppers. Her parents, Edward and Emily Primus, immigrated to the United States in 1921 when Pearl was still a small child. About Stange Fruit: Dr. Primus created socially and politically solo dances dealing with the plight of Black Americans in the face of racism. [8] Amongst these influencers, Dafora's influence on Primus has been largely ignored by historians and unmentioned by Primus. Pearl Eileen Primus (November 29, 1919 - October 29, 1994) was an American dancer, choreographer and anthropologist. Through this organization, Primus not only gained a foundation for her contemporary technique, but she learned about artistic activism. How conformity plays a part in their words and actions. She gained a lot of information from her family who enlightened her about their West Indian roots and African lineage. 1933-2023 Jacobs Pillow Dance Festival, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Her familial ties laid the foundation for the art she would later create. 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".