The Wedding [extract 1]
2009 - Director : Carlès, James
Choreographer(s) : Carlès, James (France) Primus, Pearl (United States)
Present in collection(s): Maison de la danse , Compagnie James Carlès Danse & Co - Œuvres majeures du patrimoine chorégraphique ( Danses noires, danses modernes, danses contemporaines, danses urbaines, etc...)
Video producer : James Carlès
The Wedding [extract 1]
2009 - Director : Carlès, James
Choreographer(s) : Carlès, James (France) Primus, Pearl (United States)
Present in collection(s): Maison de la danse , Compagnie James Carlès Danse & Co - Œuvres majeures du patrimoine chorégraphique ( Danses noires, danses modernes, danses contemporaines, danses urbaines, etc...)
Video producer : James Carlès
The Wedding
Pearl Primus produced this piece following her research in what was then Zaire. 'The Wedding' was backed by the New York Times journalist Anna Kisselgoff, who wrote: “[This piece] is not a modernized stylized representation of an African ritual. This is authentic. The authenticity is adapted and translated into an acceptable theatrical language. Miss Primus was able to reproduce this particular form with brilliance worthy of the greatest scenographers.”
Credits
Creation 1960
Choregraphy : Pearl Primus
Transmission : Mary Waithe
Rerun by : James Carlès
Duration : 20 mn
Interpreters :12 dancers, 3 musicians et 1 singer
Carlès, James
James Carles is a choreographer, researcher and lecturer. He received initial training in dance and music of Africa and its Diaspora and then trained with the great names of modern dance in New York and London mainly. Since 1992, he hired an artistic and analytical approach that explores the “places junctions” between the dances, rhythms and philosophies of Africa and its Diaspora with technical and western thoughts frames. To date, his company’s directory contains more than fifty pieces of his own creation and authors like Katherine Dunham, Pearl Primus, Talley Beatty, Asadata Dafora, Geraldine Armstrong, Rick Odums, Wayne Barbaste, Carolyn Carlson, Robyn Orlin, etc.
Dancer soloist and outstanding performer, James Carles was performer and artistic collaborator for not only numerous “all music” ranging from Baroque to contemporary music, through jazz; but also choreographers such as Carolyn Carlson, Robyn Orlin, Rui Horta, Myriam Naisy, etc.
Artist associated with Astrada- Jazz In Marciac 2012-2014, research associate in the laboratory of the University LLA Créatis Jean Jaures Toulouse, James Carles is particularly invests in heritage projects for diversity and diffusion of choreographic culture. He is also founder and artistic director of the festival “Dances and Black Continents”.
Primus, Pearl
(1919-1994)
Pearl Primus was born in Trinidad and grew up in New York. An artist dedicated to African heritage, she combined anthropology and choreography to help break down the terrible racial barriers that were on her path. In 1941, she was granted a scholarship for the New Dance Group’s Interracial Dance School. Two years later, she launched her professional career with her first solo dance recital.
Pearl Primus frequently stigmatized racism in her choreographies. 'Strange Fruit' (1943) dealt with lynching. 'Michael, Row Your Boat Ashore' (1979) was a response to the 1963 racist bomb attack against the Baptist Church on the 16th Street which killed four young Afro-American girls. Among her other notable works, 'The Negro Speaks of Rivers' (1943) and 'African Ceremonial' (1944) are well worth mentioning. Pearl Primus also created choreographies on Broadway, in particular for 'Caribbean Carnival' (1947) and 'The Emperor Jones' (1947).
In 1948, she obtained a grant to make an important research trip to Africa to study the traditional dances of the African continent. Upon her return to New York, she opened the Pearl Primus School of Primal Dance. At the end of the 1950s and the beginning of the 1960s, she lived in Africa. Hand-in-hand with her husband, Percival Borde, she founded the Konoma Kende Centre in Liberia, the first traditional performance arts centre in Africa.
Upon their return to the United States, Pearl Primus and Percival Borde opened the Primus-Borde School of Dance. Pearl Primus graduated with a Doctorate in Philosophy from New York University in 1978 and set up the Pearl Primus Dance Language Institute the same year. She also taught in several post-secondary institutions, in particular Howard University, New York University and the Five College Consortium in Massachusetts.
Source : Arts Alive National Arts Centre
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