Pearl Primus

(1919-1994)

Pearl Primus was born in Trinidad and grew up in New York. An artist dedicated to African heritage, she combined anthropology and choreography to help break down the terrible racial barriers that were on her path. In 1941, she was granted a scholarship for the New Dance Group’s Interracial Dance School. Two years later, she launched her professional career with her first solo dance recital.

Pearl Primus frequently stigmatized racism in her choreographies. ‘Strange Fruit’ (1943) dealt with lynching. ‘Michael, Row Your Boat Ashore’ (1979) was a response to the 1963 racist bomb attack against the Baptist Church on the 16th Street which killed four young Afro-American girls. Among her other notable works, ‘The Negro Speaks of Rivers’ (1943) and ‘African Ceremonial’ (1944) are well worth mentioning. Pearl Primus also created choreographies on Broadway, in particular for ‘Caribbean Carnival’ (1947) and ‘The Emperor Jones’ (1947).

In 1948, she obtained a grant to make an important research trip to Africa to study the traditional dances of the African continent. Upon her return to New York, she opened the Pearl Primus School of Primal Dance. At the end of the 1950s and the beginning of the 1960s, she lived in Africa. Hand-in-hand with her husband, Percival Borde, she founded the Konoma Kende Centre in Liberia, the first traditional performance arts centre in Africa.

Upon their return to the United States, Pearl Primus and Percival Borde opened the Primus-Borde School of Dance. Pearl Primus graduated with a Doctorate in Philosophy from New York University in 1978 and set up the Pearl Primus Dance Language Institute the same year. She also taught in several post-secondary institutions, in particular Howard University, New York University and the Five College Consortium in Massachusetts.

Source : Arts Alive National Arts Centre

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