SPEAKER_01: Reboot your credit card with Apple Card. It gives you unlimited daily cash back that can earn 4.15% annual percentage yield when you open a savings account. A high yield, low effort way to grow your money with no fees. Apply for Apple Card now in the Wallet app on iPhone to start earning and growing your daily cash with savings today. Apple Card subject to credit approval. Savings is available to Apple Card owners subject to eligibility. Savings accounts by Goldman Sachs Bank USA. Member FDIC, terms apply.
SPEAKER_03: AT&T and Verizon lure you in with their best phone offers only to lock you into a three-year phone contract, not at T-Mobile. Now, with T-Mobile's best Go 5G plans, upgrade when you want. Every year or every two, you decide. Visit T-Mobile.com to take charge of your upgrades.
SPEAKER_05: Get two-year financing on Go 5G Plus and Next. One-year upgrade on Go 5G Next requires financing new qualifying device and upgrading in good condition after six plus months with 50% paid off. Upgrade ends financing in any promo credits. Visit T-Mobile.com.
SPEAKER_00: Hello, I'm Lauren Iannotti, editor-in-chief of Real Simple, and I'll be your guest host for this week of Womanica. This month, we're talking about movers and shakers, dancers, stunt women, martial artists, and other pioneering women who've used their physical prowess to shake things up. Today, we're talking about a dancer, choreographer, teacher, and anthropologist who used to dance to unify and uplift the African-American identity and experience. Let's talk about Pearl Primus. Pearl Eileen Primus was born on November 29th, 1919 in Port of Spain, Trinidad. Her parents moved the family to the US when she was two. Pearl came of age in New York City during the rise of the Harlem Renaissance. In high school, Pearl's natural athletic ability landed her a spot on the track and field team. She excelled in sprinting and the high jump, and she continued to compete at the collegiate level at Hunter College. Pearl enjoyed the sport, but her real goal was to become a doctor, and she was well on her way to doing so. In 1940, she received her bachelor's degree in biology and admission to Howard University's medical school. During the summer before medical school, Pearl tried to find work as a lab technician, but racism and discrimination locked her out of this job market. She eventually found a job through the National Youth Administration, a New Deal program. Pearl first worked in the wardrobe department for the program's dance group. Then, somewhat accidentally, she was thrust into the dance scene when she was hired as an understudy. What wasn't accidental was her gift for movement. Pearl's rhythm, combined with her strength and mobility, made her a natural. If you've ever seen a photo of Pearl, it's likely you've seen her suspended high in the air, caught mid-leap, defying gravity. She was particularly skilled at these explosive jumps. Pearl officially started her dance training with a scholarship to the New Dance Group. There, Pearl studied modern dance under the guidance of the group's founders. It's also where she began to form her beliefs around the impact of dance on society. The New Dance Group taught her about artistic activism and how to create influence through art. On February 14th, 1943, Pearl made her solo debut at what's now known as the 92nd Street Y. Her performance impressed the New York Times dance critic John Martin. In a glowing review, he wrote, "'If every young dancer was entitled "'to a company of her own, "'and the freedom to do what she chooses with it, "'she is it.'" Pearl was becoming known for the energy and emotion that radiated from her performances. And a few months later, she booked a 10-month engagement to perform at Cafe Society downtown. It wasn't an easy decision for her. Becoming a doctor was still on her mind. But Pearl chose dance because she knew it had its own healing powers. She later said, "'Dance is my medicine. "'It's the scream that eases for a while "'the terrible frustration common to all human beings "'who, because of race, creed, or color, are invisible.'" Pearl found an inspiring atmosphere at Cafe Society. It was an integrated, left-leaning, politically active nightclub. Frequent performers and patrons included prominent Black entertainers like Billie Holiday, Paul Robeson, and Lena Horne. Pearl became part of a small but growing community of Black entertainers using their talents to help end racial discrimination in America. After experiencing the political and social power of dance, Pearl became interested in using the art to portray the Black experience in America. But because she had spent much of her life in New York, she hadn't experienced the Southern realities of sharecropping and lynchings. Pearl worried her choreography lacked authenticity as a result. So, in the summer of 1944, Pearl traveled to the Deep South to immerse herself in the daily lives of Black Americans suffering the most. She posed as a migrant worker. She spent time in the fields picking cotton and in churches singing African American spirituals. In the end, Pearl returned to New York with a deeper understanding of the Black experience and an appreciation for the role spirituality played in Black culture. Pearl presented her findings in her Broadway debut on October 4th, 1944. She choreographed and performed a routine to Langston Hughes' poem, The Negro Speaks of Rivers. Through her movements, Pearl demonstrated the strength of African Americans in the face of inequality and injustice. She also choreographed a piece to folk singer Josh White's Hard Time Blues. In the piece, her gravity-defying jumps and leaps showed defiance and anger as an act of protest against sharecropping. In 1946, Pearl founded her own company. While she was on tour, the Rosenwald Foundation offered her a scholarship to research and study dance in Africa. Her first stop was Liberia. From there, she went to Angola, Cameroon, Senegal, and the Congo. Pearl spent more than a year learning about the act, function, and meaning of African dance. She witnessed and experienced the role dance played in the everyday lives of the various tribes. She learned how Africans used their bodies to communicate, and she once again recognized the importance of spirituality. This trip strengthened Pearl's grasp of American dance and influenced the rest of her life's work. She made it her mission to break down myths and stereotypes people held about African dance. To do so, she didn't stray from the original forms of movement that she had learned, or try to put her own spin on them. She wanted her expression to be as authentic as possible. In 1954, Pearl married Trinidadian dancer Percival Board. A year later, they had a son. The couple collaborated personally and professionally. Throughout the 1950s and 60s, they worked to elevate African dance throughout America and Africa. They performed together and eventually founded the Pearl Primus Dance Language Institute in New Rochelle, New York. Here, students could take classes that combined African American, Caribbean, and African dance styles with modern dance and ballet techniques. After years of dancing, teaching, and researching, Pearl received her PhD in anthropology from the New York University School of Education in 1978. That same year, she received the Alvin Ailey Dance Pioneer Award. Pearl retired from dancing to teach full time in the 1980s. She served as the director of the Cora P. Maloney College, a Black Studies school at the State University of New York at Buffalo. She also taught ethnic studies at the Five College Consortium in Western Massachusetts. Just as she excelled in dance, she also excelled in education. In 1991, Pearl was named the first recipient of the Ba Lhasara Swati Joy Ann Dewey Benecke Chair for Distinguished Teaching by the American Dance Festival. She said, dance has been my freedom and my world. I dance not to entertain, but to help people better understand each other. Pearl Primus died on October 29th, 1994. She was 74 years old. That's it for this episode of Womanica. To learn about more individuals changing the game, check out Reel Simple's March issue on newsstands and at reelsimple.com slash gamechangers. We're celebrating the people, inventions, and ideas that are changing our lives for the better. Special thanks to co-creators Jenny and Liz Kaplan for having me as a guest host. Talk to you tomorrow.
SPEAKER_06: Now is the time to flex your footprint. With T-Mobile for Business and the nation's largest 5G network, inspiration can strike from virtually anywhere. So whether you're in the office, on the road, or on your PT not quite O, you'll be ready for the next big thing. After all, if geography doesn't limit your business, your network shouldn't either. Learn more at tmobile.com slash now.
SPEAKER_04: Do you hear it? The clock is ticking. It's time for the new season of 60 Minutes. The CBS News Sunday Night tradition is back for its 56th season with all new big name interviews, hard-hitting investigations, and epic adventures. No place, no one, no story is off limits, and you'll always learn something new. It's time for 60 Minutes. New episode airs Sunday, September 24th on CBS and streaming on Paramount+.
SPEAKER_02: Your home is important. It's where you raise your family and your biggest financial investment. For your home improvement projects, visit iheart.dabella.us. For your roofing, siding, window, and bath renovations, in your community, there's a local Dibella team. Visit iheart.dibella.us for your free no obligation quote. It's easy. There's no payments until 2024 on approved credit. Over 15,000 satisfied customers on Google had a five-star experience with Dibella. For your home improvement projects, check out the award-winning pros at iheart.dibella.us, where quality begins at home.
