The Wedding

Many of Pearl Primus’ works were drawn from her anthropological studies of traditional African dance. The Wedding (originally called Congolese Wedding when Primus debuted the work in 1961) comes from Primus’ studies of rituals from Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo). In the dance, a bride is protected from a demon of evil that threatens to corrupt the ritual. Anna Kisselgoff of The New York Times wrote, “The Wedding is not a modern‐dance stylization of an African ritual. It is the real thing. But it is the real thing as adapted and translated into theatrical terms. Miss Primus has understood this theatricality with the mastery of a first‐class stage director.”