At 7:30 p.m. last night in Watkins Auditorium, Peggy Schwartz and her husband, Murray Schwartz, hosted a dance history lecture as part of the UTM Academic Speaker Series.
During this dance history presentation, they discussed the life of their dear friend Pearl Primus who was a very big influence in African culture and African dance.
They began the presentation by showing a video from the 1940s with the voice of Pearly Primus and her describing what dance was like for her. Pearl described her dancing in the video as her “freedom and medicine” because she dances out her anger and tears, and she also described dance as “not to entertain but to better understand people.”
After the video, Peggy and Murray Schwartz began discussing Primus’s major accomplishments throughout her life and how she created a new look at African culture and transformed African dance. Primus did protest dance that included “Strange Fruit” and “Hard Time Blues” that are still performed today in her honor. Primus also was declared as a man in Africa as well just so she could learn the ways of the warrior and include that in her dance. She really wanted to preserve the African culture through the world of dance, and she also had many activist groups. In addition, she traveled a lot and was recognized a lot because of her dancing. She met her second husband in her hometown of Trinidad, and they formed a dance school together and taught various students. Over in the U.S., Primus was a major force in teaching African dance and a staple in teaching African culture through dance. Primus also was one of the first African women to earn a PHD.
Primus was born in 1919 in LaVente and excelled athletically and academically in everything that she did throughout high school. Many thought that she always maintained grace and poise even though she had a “stalkier physique” and that she began to wear African clothing more as she got older. Peggy Schwartz said one of her more popular chants that Primus help make popular and well-known.
Peggy and Murray Schwartz ended the presentation by talking about how now we honor Primus by still performing some of her most popular dances, and her ground-breaking work in anthropology can still be found in today’s world. The African style that she showed throughout the years is now being seen on runways as well.
After Peggy and Murray Schwartz’s presentation on Primus, a choreography class performed an African dance in honor of Primus and then Peggy and Murray Schwartz answered questions.
