Pearl Primus

American dancer, choreographer, anthropologist, and teacher Pearl Primus (1919-1994) was born in Trinidad and immigrated to the United States in 1921 with her parents. Primus was raised in New York City and received her bachelor’s degree in biology and pre-medical science from Hunter College in 1940. However, her goal of working as a medical researcher was thwarted by the racial discrimination of the time. She received a scholarship from the National Youth Association’s New Dance Group in 1941 and soon began performing professionally as a soloist and in dance groups around New York. In 1944, Primus gave a solo recital, which led to  
several Broadway engagements.  
 
Her Trinidadian heritage, combined with extensive studies in the Caribbean, Africa, and the American South, became the lens through which she taught and choreographed. Confronting stereotypes and prejudice through movement, Primus advocated dance as a means of uniting people against discrimination. “When I dance, I am dancing as a human being, but a human being who has African roots,” she declared of her work. Her dances, notably The Wedding (1961) for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, reflect her travels to such countries as Senegal, Nigeria, Liberia, and Côte d’Ivoire. Though most of Primus’ other dances are based on early West Indian forms, she choreographed several pieces about American life, including Strange Fruit (1945), a reference to the practice of lynching; The Negro Speaks of Rivers (1944), based on a poem by Langston Hughes; and Michael, Row Your Boat Ashore (1979), about the racially motivated bombing of churches in Birmingham, AL in the 1960s. 

 
Eventually Primus formed her own dance troupe and school, the Pearl Primus Dance Language Institute. She was the director of the Performing Arts Centre in Liberia (1959–61) and earned a master’s in education (1959) and a doctorate in anthropology (1978) from New York University. She held several academic appointments in her late career, notably serving as director of the Cora P. Maloney College at the State University of New York at Buffalo (1984–86) and as professor of ethnic studies at the University of Massachusetts (1984–90). Primus received numerous awards and honors including the 1991 National Medal of Arts.  

Repertory: 

Fanga 

Impinyuza 

The Wedding