Primus, Pearl (Personal Name)

Cage, J. Our spring will come, c1977 (a.e.) t.p. (Pearl Primus)

Glover, J. Pearl Primus, c1989: t.p. (Pearl Primus) p. ii (Dr. Pearl E. Primus) p. 158, etc. (born 1919, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad; Hunter College, B.A. in biology and premedicine; NYU, health education; Hunter College, M.A., psychology; Columbia University, Ph.D., anthropology; prominent in African-American arts and dance)

Dancing times, Dec. 1994: p. 273 (born Trinidad, 11/19/1919; died New Rochelle, NY, 10/29/1994)

Dance Heritage Coalition WWW site, August 28, 2014: 100 Dance Treasures (Pearl Primus; dancer, choreographer; came to NYC as a child; received a scholarship from the New Dance Group; made her dance debut at the 92nd Street YM-YWHA in 1943; studied African and African-American material and worked with Asadata Dafora; developed a repertory of dances emphasizing the African diasporic traditions; spent a year in Africa in 1948 with a Julius Rosenwald Fund grant; after returning to New York, opened the Pearl Primus School of Primal Dance; director of the African Performing Arts Center in Monrovia, Liberia in 1961; lectured and taught courses in anthropology and ethnic dance)

African American National Biography, accessed March 10, 2015, via Oxford African American Studies Center database: (Primus, Pearl; choreographer, dancer, anthropologist, teacher; born 29 November 1919 in Trinidad; graduated from Hunter College of the City University of New York (1940); studied dance in the Caribbean (1953); earned MA in Education (1959) and PhD in Anthropology (1977) from New York University (NYU); received a fellowship from the Rosenwald Foundation to study in Africa (1948); was a director of Liberia's Performing Arts Center (1959-1961); opened the Primus-Borde School of Primal Dance in New York City and taught anthropology, sociology, and dance (1961); founded the Pearl Primus Dance Language Institute (1978); was professor of ethnic studies at the Five Colleges Inc. (1984-1990); received the National Medal of Arts (1991); died 29 October 1994 in New Rochelle, New York, United States)

Individual was a National Medal of Arts awardee.