The first full-scale biography of the seminal dancer, anthropologist, and educator
Pearl Primus (1919-1994) blazed onto the dance scene in 1943 with stunning works that incorporated social and racial protest into their dance aesthetic. In The Dance Claimed Me, Peggy and Murray Schwartz, friends and colleagues of Primus, offer an intimate perspective on her life and explore her influences on American culture, dance, and education. They trace Primus's path from her childhood in Port of Spain, Trinidad, through her rise as an influential international dancer, an early member of the New Dance Group (whose motto was "Dance is a weapon"), and a pioneer in dance anthropology.
Primus traveled extensively in the United States, Europe, Israel, the Caribbean, and Africa, and she played an important role in presenting authentic African dance to American audiences. She engendered controversy in both her private and professional lives, marrying a white Jewish man during a time of segregation and challenging black intellectuals who opposed the "primitive" in her choreography. Her political protests and mixed-race tours in the South triggered an FBI investigation, even as she was celebrated by dance critics and by contemporaries like Langston Hughes.
For The Dance Claimed Me, the Schwartzes interviewed more than a hundred of Primus's family members, friends, and fellow artists, as well as other individuals to create a vivid portrayal of a life filled with passion, drama, determination, fearlessness, and brilliance.
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"The Dance Claimed Me is at once an invaluable contribution to the cultural history of American dance as well as a scintillating account of an extraordinary life. As dancer, a force majeure; as choreographer, a culturally groundbreaking and influential innovator; as devotee and tireless teacher of traditional African cultural values, Mama Pearl Primus was the embodiment of black consciousness and womanhood at its very best. All of which emerges powerfully from these pages.”—Ekwueme Michael Thelwell, author of The Harder They Come
(Ekwueme Michael Thelwell)"Peggy and Murray have taken the great, complicated life and legacy of Pearl Primus and given us a way to learn, breathe and feel Pearl's life journey. It reads like a mystery novel, turning and churning at unexpected moments. Dance scholars, African American historians and lovers of dance will all inhale this book."--Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Founder and Artistic Director of Urban Bush Women
(Jawole Willa Jo Zollar)"Pearl Primus was a cauldron of creativity. When she danced she allowed us to share her soul. Peggy and Murray Schwartz celebrate one of the most fantastic beings to set rhythms on the sacred ground called Earth."--Chuck Davis, Founder and Artistic Director of the African American Dance Ensemble
(Chuck Davis)"Peggy and Murray Schwartz have written a bold biography of one of the most important figures in American dance. Pearl Primus almost single-handedly lifted African dance to the American stage and gave the world her magic in a daring creativity sustained by a sheer love of movement. This book should be read by anyone seeking to understand modern dance traditions."--Molefi Kete Asante, author of The History of Africa: The Quest for Eternal Harmony
(Molefi Kete Asante)"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
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