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The Dance Claimed Me: A Biography of Pearl Primus
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About The Dance Claimed Me: A Biography Of Pearl Primus
Product Description "Why do I dance? Dance is my medicine. It’s the scream which eases for a while the terrible frustration common to all human beings who because of race, creed, or color, are ‘invisible’. Dance is the fist with which I fight the sickening ignorance of prejudice."—Pearl Primus"A revelation of one woman’s life, a celebration of Black beauty, and a pleasure to read, The Dance Claimed Me is required reading for anyone interested in one twentieth-century Black woman trailblazer’s story."—Eisa Nefertari Ulen, The Crisis 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 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 and Paul Robeson. For The Dance Claimed Me, the Schwartzes interviewed more than a hundred of Primus's family members, friends, and fellow artists—among them Maya Angelou, Geoffrey Holder, Judith Jamison, Donald McKayle, and Archbishop Granville Williams—to create a vivid portrayal of a life filled with passion, drama, determination, fearlessness, and brilliance. Review "The authors. . . create vivid descriptions of [Primus's] performances, and illuminate her pioneering work in merging African dance with modern dance innovation; they explore her charming but difficult personality with tact and grace."—Judith Flanders, Times Literary Supplement -- Judith Flanders ― Times Literary Supplement "[A]n informal, intimate, yet scholarly biography of Primus . . . This is an excellent source for those interested in American and African American studies, women's studies, and, of course, American modern dance, dance anthropology, and dance education."—C.T. Bond, Choice -- C.T. Bond ― Choice "Filled with eyewitness accounts of her powerful presence on stage and off . . . this welcome addition to dance history illuminates Primus's life and career."— Library Journal.com ― Library Journal.com "In The Dance Claimed Me, we see Pearl Primus dancing a dance performed only by Watusi men. We see her electrifying performance at the first Negro rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City, where she became moon and prayer. Rain. Thunder. Light on the world stage. We feel the pulse of this twentieth century African-American woman claiming the dance of her people for all people and we chant Amen. Amen. A woman. A woman."—Sonia Sanchez, author of Morning Haiku -- Sonia Sanchez "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, comp
