The Dance Claimed Me
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A Biography of Pearl Primus
Peggy and Murray Schwartz
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Read an interview with Peggy and Murray Schwartz on the Yale Press Log.
"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.
Peggy Schwartz is professor emeritus of dance and former director of the dance program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Murray Schwartz is former dean of humanities and fine arts at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He teaches literature at Emerson College.
"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
"Peggy and Murray have taken the great, complicated life and legacy of Pearl Primus and given us a way to learn, breathe and feel Pearl's life journey. It reads like a mystery novel, turning and churning at unexpected moments. Dance scholars, African American historians and lovers of dance will all inhale this book."--Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Founder and Artistic Director of Urban Bush Women
"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
"Peggy and Murray Schwartz have written a bold biography of one of the most important figures in American dance. Pearl Primus almost single-handedly lifted African dance to the American stage and gave the world her magic in a daring creativity sustained by a sheer love of movement. This book should be read by anyone seeking to understand modern dance traditions."--Molefi Kete Asante, author of The History of Africa: The Quest for Eternal Harmony
"As much a labour of love as it is a recovery project, The Dance Claimed Me communicates the Schwartzs’ sincere investment in securing Primus’s place in concert dance and US cultural history.…The authors strike a devotional tone that will probably resonate with many readers who admire the artist, and for whom this book represents the acknowledgement that Primus has always deserved but seldom received. There is no question that the book is an archival tour de force."—Rebekah Kowal, Performance Research
Publication Date: October 30, 2012
33 b/w illus.
