Pearl Primus in Folk Dance, 1945. Photo by Gerda Peterich. Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival.

Pearl Primus in Africa (c.1960). (Photograph from the Pearl Primus Papers; courtesy of the American Dance Festival Archives.)

A dancer, choreographer, and inspired proselytizer for African dance, Pearl Primus (1919-1994) was born in Trinidad. She came to New York as a child, received an excellent education, but found her ambition to be a doctor thwarted by racism. She received a scholarship from the New Dance Group and in 1943 made her debut at the 92nd Street YM-YWHA. She worked with Asadata Dafora, began a study of African and African-American material, and developed a repertory of dances emphasizing the rich variety of African diasporic traditions. In 1948, with a Julius Rosenwald Fund grant, she spent over a year in Africa, collecting material and documenting dances that in some cases were fading into history. Returning to New York, she opened the Pearl Primus School of Primal Dance. In 1961 she became the director of the African Performing Arts Center in Monrovia, Liberia, the first organization of its kind on the African continent. A buoyant and charismatic performer, Primus lectured widely and taught courses in anthropology and ethnic dance on many campuses. "I dance not to entertain," she once said, "but to help people to better understand each other."