Overview

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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9780300155341

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Reviews

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

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<br><br>

Author Information

Peggy Schwartz is former director of the Dance Program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Murray M. Schwartz is former Dean of Humanities and Fine Arts at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He teaches literature at Emerson College.

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