Biography of pearl primus
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Primus, Pearl
Background on Pearl Primus
A pioneer of African dance in the United States and a vital scholarly voice in anthropology, Pearl Primus burst onto the scene in the early s as a choreographer, performer, composer, and teacher. Born in Port of Spain, Trinidad, on Nov. 29, , Primus emigrated to New York City with her parents Ernest and Emily at the age of two and as she grew, she set her course on a career in medicine.
Earning a BA in Biology at Hunter College in , Primus entered the graduate program at New York University intent on her pursuit, but finances soon thwarted her plans. To fund her education, she looked for a position as a laboratory technician, but discovered that racism barred her from employment. In a move that dramatically altered the direction of her life, she found a position with the New Deal National Youth Administration, and almost overnight she was plucked from working with costumes to working as a dancer. She never looked back. Although the NYA fol
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Pearl Primus, dancer and choreographer, was born on November 29th, , in Trinidad. Her parents, Edward and Emily Primus, immigrated to the United States in when Pearl was still a small child.
Primus was raised in New York City, and in received her bachelor’s degree in biology and pre-medical science from Hunter College. However, her goal of working as a medical researcher was unrealized due to the racial discrimination of the time. When she went to the National Youth Association (NYA) for assistance, she was cast as a dancer in one of their plays.
Primus’s promise as a dancer was recognized quickly, and she received a scholarship from the National ungdom Association’s New Dance Group in She soon began performing professionally both as a solist and in dance groups around New York. In , she performed with the NYA, and in she performed with the New York Young Men’s Hebrew Association. By , she appeared as a soloist.
In Primus received a federal grant to study dance, and used the mone
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Pearl Primus
The Early Stages
When Pearl Primus performed at Jacob’s Pillow for the first time on August 16, , she was in the early stages of establishing her career as an important theatrical concert dancer on the American contemporary dance scene. One of her strongest influences during her early search for aesthetic direction was her intense interest in her African-diaspora heritage; this became a source of artistic inspiration that she would draw on throughout her entire career.
When she was three years old, her family had moved from the island of Trinidad and resettled in New York City, but her relatives kept the memories of their West Indian roots and their African lineage alive for her, distilling them into stories that transmitted a sense of cultural and historical heritage to the young girl. Her familial ties laid the foundation for the art she would later create.
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She began her formal study of dance in at the New Dance Group, where she stud