The dance claimed me : a biography of Pearl Primus / Peggy and Murray Schwartz.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Schwartz, Peggy.

Contributor:

Schwartz, Murray.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Primus, Pearl.

Dancers--United States--Biography.

Dancers.

African American dancers--Biography.

African American dancers.

Choreographers--United States--Biography.

Choreographers.

African American dance--History.

African American dance.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (416 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New Haven [Conn.] : Yale University Press, 2011.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

"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"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Introduction

One From Laventille to Camp Wo-Chi-Ca

Two A Life in Dance

Three African Transformations

Four Teaching, Traveling, and the FBI

Five Trinidad Communities

Six Return to Africa

Seven The PhD

Eight The Turn to Teaching and Return to the Stage

NINE Academic Trials and Triumphs

Ten Transmitting the Work

Eleven Barbados: Return to the Sea

Acknowledgments

Appendix I: Pearl Primus Timeline

Appendix II: Interviews

A Note on Sources and Documentation

Notes

Works Cited

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-283-11434-8

9786613114341

0-300-15643-X

OCLC:

1024008666