Pearl Primus

Pearl Primus (born November 29, 1919, Port of Spain, Trinidad—died October 29, 1994, New Rochelle, New York, U.S.) was an American dancer, choreographer, anthropologist, and teacher whose performance work drew on the African American experience and on her research in Africa and the Caribbean.

Primus’s family moved to New York City when she was two years of age. Intending to become a physician, Primus received a degree in biology and premedical sciences from Hunter College (1940) in New York City. While taking health education courses at New York University, Primus sought employment at a laboratory but was deterred by racial discrimination. She was later hired in the dance unit of the National Youth Administration and soon received a scholarship from the New Dance Group, where she studied modern dance and with whom she made her debut in 1943. The following year she gave a solo recital, which led to several Broadway engagements.

Primus’s first major choreographic work, “African Ceremonial” (1944), attested to her early studies of her Black heritage. In 1948 she received a Rosenwald Foundation scholarship to travel to Africa to study dance, which would become the first of many research trips. Her dances, notably “The Wedding” (1961) for Alvin Ailey’s company, reflect her travels to such countries as Senegal, Nigeria, Liberia, and Côte d’Ivoire. Though most of her 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, Alabama, in the 1960s. Her performances could also be playful, as in “Haitian Play Dance” (1947).

Primus formed her own company in 1944. In addition to choreography, 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, namely the National Medal of Arts (1991).