Although Pearl Primus did not start off as a dancer in her adult life, she was an athlet She went to Hunter College as a pre-med student majoring in biology. Upon graduation from college, Pearl found a strong interest in dance. She began to work with the National Youth Administration's New Dance Group in New York. In 1943, she made her first offical debut in New York in a piece called the "African Ceremonial." In order to further pursue inspirations for choreography and movement motivated by African-American culture and themes, Pearl took time within the first year of her dancing career to become apart of African-American life in the South. It was in the South that Pearl began to have an experience and connection with everyday movement in the life of southern African-Americans. In addition to being enriched in black southern culture and life, Pearl trained with modern dancers like Martha Graham, Charles Wiedmann, Doris Humprhey, and Hanya Holm. According to Foley, she then began performing at the Cafe Society Downtown, an integrated nightclub, and in 1944 she gave her first solo recital, performing to poetry and the music of folksinger Josh White. Shortly after this performance, Primus was invited to perform on Broadway. In 1946, Primus appeared in a New York revival of "Showboat," as well as in Louis Gruenberg's opera "The Emperor Jones" at the Chicago Civic Opera.
Other works that are attributed to the success of Pearl Primus include Primus's interpretation of Langston Hughes' "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" (1944); "Strange Fruit"(1945), based on the poem by Lewis Allan about a lynching; and "Hard Time Blues" (1945), based on a song about sharecroppers by folksinger Josh White.
She formed her own company and choreographed both group and solo pieces. Primus used her previous pieces and developed ones to further shed light on the social and racial issues of the time. In 1948, Primus was given the opportunity to further her studies with a Rosenwald grant that allowed her to visit Africa to study African dance. She traveled throughout the continent learning traditional dances and rituals. Primus's later work was deeply influenced by her experiences in Nigeria, Zaire, Rwanda, and Ghana. In 1953 Primus returned to Trinidad to study dance there, and met her husband, Percival Borde. In 1958, their son, at the age of 5, joined her dance troupe. In 1979, Borde died.
Primus finished her Masters and Doctoral degrees in Education at New York University in 1959 and 1978, respectively. Using personal, educational and overseas dance experiences, Primus introduced American audiences and dancers to African dance, as well as to African dance traditions. Her performance troupe later formed into the Pearl Primus Dance Language Institute where Primus taught children and adults, and she taught dance, dance education, and ethnic studies at New York University, the Five College Consortium in Amherst, Massachusetts, and other colleges and universities. Though she was heavily involved in the teaching of African-American, African and Caribbean dances, she also incorporated her modern and ballet training in her teaching and work creating an unique blend of dance.
do you know what sparked her interest in dance after her pre-med degree, any specific company or dancer? do you believe pearl portrayed the most of her work based on her travels? and if so do you feel like if you were to see her work in her era you would be inspired?
ReplyDeleteInteresting being in Kris' piece, we are able to see a little background culture that's helps us both understand where she may have been inspired by her movement, and why/how we do the African movement we do!
I'd just like to say that you seem to have really dug deep into what Pearl is all about.
ReplyDeleteAre there any video's of Pearl or her company dancing on the web? I'd love to see how she integrated the Modern and Ballet techniques into her works.
You mentioned that she was heavily influenced by the African-American way of life in the South in her early days of dance, did she ever draw from her experience living as an African-American in the north? I am sure there is equal experiences to draw from while she grew up in the north, and I'm curious if she ever experimented with her early history.
I find it hard to separate family/personal life with choreography and dance, and in another post you wrote about her child joining her company at the age of 5, was he dancing with her company or playing a character? Also, when her husband died, did she ever honor him with a dance?
I know these are a ton of specific questions and the answers may not be out there on the web, but maybe this would just be food for thought?
From the research I found, she did not pursue a career in pre-med because there was a lack of job opportunities in the field for blacks at the time. My thoughts are that she that maybe she could go to college to become a doctor and break some of the racism and feminism issues of the time. However, it worked out in the favor of the dance world! I definitely see most of her work based on her experences. I am also very inspired by not only her movement ideas, but also from the reasons she chose to create some of her works.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately their are no videos on line of the original work. However, there are some groups or companies that have used her work in rep. Those groups can be found on you tube. I will add some videos. I am not sure if she drew anything from her experiences in the north directly. I am sure that some of the social issues in the north and south had its subtle similarities. And yes, her son actually eventually did percussionist work with the company as they toured. He did work with a number of companies in the areas of music and lighting. He work as an artist in residence at Howard University as well. He died from a heart attack in 2006.
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