Measuring a Choreographic Legacy in Humanitarian Terms New Books on Pearl Primus and the Urban Bush Women
Kowal, Rebekah J.
Measuring a Choreographic Legacy in Humanitarian Terms New Books on Pearl Primus and the Urban Bush Women / Rebekah J. Kowal .-- Edinburgh: : Edinburgh University Press, , 2012
6 p.
Dance Research -- Vol. 30, núm. 2, Winter 2012, p. 191 -196
Dentro de la sección: Tradición e innovación en la creatividad intercultural (Tradition and Innovation in Cross-Cultural Creativity)
RESUMEN: - Peggy and Murray Schwartz, The Dance Claimed Me: A Biography of Pearl Primus, Yale University Press, 2011. 324 pp. - Nadine George-Graves, Urban Bush Women: Twenty years of African American Dance Theater, Community Engagement, and Working it Out, The University of Wisconsin Press, 2010. 296 pp. The books in question by the Schwartzs and George-Graves benefitted greatly from their authors' access to and deployment of archival materials traditionally held in high regard, as well as to contemporary theoretical perspectives in the case of the latter. Yet many of the seminal claims the authors make stem from their observations about the artists' ways of working. "Work" functions as a verb, more than as a noun, putting the interpretive spotlight on the means often more than the ends. In large measure, these authors' approaches are in keeping with the very terms of Primus's artistic/scholarly endeavor, which sought to explore reasons to dance that pushed beyond the realm of easy entertainment towards service to the communities of her audiences. In highlighting process, their books focus our attention on the humanitarian dimensions of Primus's and Zollar's "work". As a result, we are made to recognise how awareness of artistic cultivation, engagement, and education of diverse audiences, offer powerful measures of artistic legacy, complementing all aesthetic considerations.
Measuring a Choreographic Legacy in Humanitarian Terms New Books on Pearl Primus and the Urban Bush Women / Rebekah J. Kowal .-- Edinburgh: : Edinburgh University Press, , 2012
6 p.
Dance Research -- Vol. 30, núm. 2, Winter 2012, p. 191 -196
Dentro de la sección: Tradición e innovación en la creatividad intercultural (Tradition and Innovation in Cross-Cultural Creativity)
RESUMEN: - Peggy and Murray Schwartz, The Dance Claimed Me: A Biography of Pearl Primus, Yale University Press, 2011. 324 pp. - Nadine George-Graves, Urban Bush Women: Twenty years of African American Dance Theater, Community Engagement, and Working it Out, The University of Wisconsin Press, 2010. 296 pp. The books in question by the Schwartzs and George-Graves benefitted greatly from their authors' access to and deployment of archival materials traditionally held in high regard, as well as to contemporary theoretical perspectives in the case of the latter. Yet many of the seminal claims the authors make stem from their observations about the artists' ways of working. "Work" functions as a verb, more than as a noun, putting the interpretive spotlight on the means often more than the ends. In large measure, these authors' approaches are in keeping with the very terms of Primus's artistic/scholarly endeavor, which sought to explore reasons to dance that pushed beyond the realm of easy entertainment towards service to the communities of her audiences. In highlighting process, their books focus our attention on the humanitarian dimensions of Primus's and Zollar's "work". As a result, we are made to recognise how awareness of artistic cultivation, engagement, and education of diverse audiences, offer powerful measures of artistic legacy, complementing all aesthetic considerations.