Winston-Salem Teachers College Presents Remitha M. Spurlock and Curtis James in Recital

Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 1945. Four page program measuring 6 x 9 inches. Folded with normal wear; excellent.. A program for a dance performance at Winston-Salem Teachers College in May of 1945. Now known as Winston-Salem State University, the college is a historically Black public university and part of the University of North Carolina system. This performance, put on by The College Dance Group, includes a number of pieces choreographed by pioneering Black dancer, choreographer, and anthropologist Pearl Primus; the back of the program reads “PEARL PRIMUS PRIMITIVE TECHNIQUE”, with a pencil drawing of a smiling dancer. Primus is known for her astonishing acrobaticism and for basing her choreography on extensive research, including fieldwork both in the US and in West Africa. In 1945, Primus was early in her career—she began her formal study in 1941 with the activist New Dance Group in New York City—and was receiving acclaim for her performance of Hard Time Blues in collaboration with Josh White, based on her research into the lives of southern sharecroppers.[1] Pieces attributed to Primus in this Winston-Salem performance include “African”, “Dance of Thanksgiving”, and “Afro-Haitian Conga”. Of interest to scholars of African American dance.

[1] John Perpener, “Pearl Primus”, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Interactive, May 2017, https://danceinteractive.jacobspillow.org/themes-essays/african-diaspora/pearl-primus/.