Postwar Inter-Racial American Modern Dance and the Civil Rights Movement

Dance, just like any other form of art, changes with time. The two crucial eras by which
people differentiate dance are the before and after the Second World War. Scholars have
specifically concentrated in the post-war era, as there were significant events during that period 1 .
For instance, the civil rights movement is an essential occurrence that was consequential to the
transformation of dance. The African American movement pioneered the fight for equality
between blacks and whites in America in the early 1950s and 1960s.Therefore during the civil
rights movement era, revolutionists used forms of art like dance to pass messages. Among the
many dancers who used their craft to give a politicized message that fought for civil rights, two
of the most notable dancers were Anna Sokolow and Pearl Primus. Through the works of these
two dancers (Anna and Pearl), One can identify the roles race had on dance in the post-war
period. This paper discusses the history of modern dance universalism, diasporic dance, and
black modernization and how the dance works of Anna Sokolow and Pearl Primus had
administrative features as well as what their art stood for.
Modern Dance Universalism
After the second world war ended in 1945, the world remains divided, and as a result, the
United Nations(UN) through the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural

1 Au, Susan, and Jim Rutter. 2016. Ballet And Modern Dance. 1st ed. London: Thames &
Hudson.

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Organisation(UNESCO) conducted conferences that aimed at attaining world unity. One such
discussion was the International Festival of Theatre, Dance, and Music that was held in Paris in
1946 2 . Martha Graham was one of the dancers who were set to perform, but she failed to do so,
citing a lack of funding from the responsible parties (the USA government and UNESCO).
Graham would have been an essential figure in the festival because first, the world had started
being receptive of America’s modern dance and because her appearance would signify that the
world was slowly beginning to be united. From these events, the idea of dance began to shift
from being just an act of body movements, but an activity that represented the beauty of cultural
diversity. From modern dance, people from different parts of the world would relate to it and
learn it. Thus, the style was universally accepted, and dancers around the globe would start
adapting it.
Diasporic Dance
Universalism became not only a way of defining art but also a way through which
governments approached foreign policies. Therefore, in 1954 when the American government
needed to show other countries that their systems were for the benefit of the world’s unity,
modern dancers were part of the team responsible for showing America’s cultural diversity.
After dancers like Limon started touring different places, the first one being Latin America. The
natives enjoyed this form of dance to the point that the invites to perform exceeded their
expectations. Through these tours, people from other nationalities learned and adopted features
of modern dance like expressionism into their dances.
Black modernism

2 Kowal, Rebekah J. 2010. How To Do Things With Dance : Performing Change In Postwar
America. 1st ed. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.

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In the initial years of the tours, only white dancers were part of them. All black dancers
who applied were turned down due to reasons such as untheatrical and failure to meet modern
dance standards. However, during the postwar period where different dance tours were
continuing, more black dancers sent their applications to be part of the tours. With time, Alvin
Ailey was included, and this changed the narrative for black modern dancers 3 . From then, people
stopped using tags like ‘negro dance’ to mean dance by black people. However, race still plays a
significant role in dance, to the disadvantage of black dancers. Nevertheless, with the inclusion
of black dancers in the government-sponsored tours, their craft got a professional touch, and
more people became receptive of it.
Anna Sokolow
Anna Sokolow was a Jewish American dancer whose works were primarily political. She
was, therefore, a suitable figure for the America government – sponsored tours that aim to spread
the universalism policy. However, due to her race, her works were often disqualified for the trips
based on it being non-ethnic and too revolutionary. Besides, her actions were exciting, well-
received, and praised by America audiences but to the panel, foreign audiences would find it
depressing and too complex to understand; hence, her works were unsuitable for international
audiences. One of her works that shows the aesthetic and historic nature of her dances was
Dreams (1961) 4 . This piece Anna explores the plights and pain of Holocaust survivors by
dancing though impersonating the characters of various figures who tried to put their lives back
to normal after the Holocaust. Through her works, Anna represented people who were given less

3 DeFrantz, Thomas F. 2012. “Alvin Ailey (1931-1989)”. New.Danceheritage.Org.
http://new.danceheritage.org/html/treasures/ailey_essay_defrantz.pdf.
4 Kosstrin, Hannah. 2017. Honest Bodies; Revolutionary Modernism In The Dances Of Anna
Sokolow. 1st ed. New York: Oxford University Press.

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consideration in society and those that people never discussed. Through her dance she became
part of the people who used art to fight for civil rights.
Pearl Primus
Pearl Primus was a significant figure in the black modernization of dance. Her works
mostly represented the African experience in America. One of her most prominent dances was
Michael Row, the Boat Ashore (1979). In this piece, Pearl explores the church bombings at
Birmingham where two children died. In the dance, Pearl is the mother of the children, but she is
too distressed to moan. The dance focuses on showing her emotions and psychological state of
people who have undergone loss. This dance is, therefore, one of the pieces that focus on the
psychology of the dancers. Her works are inspired by the African and Caribbean cultures, which
she learned about from her visits to countries in those regions 2 . She is thus an epitome of black
modern dancers who despite the problem that race brought, managed to develop her art and leave
a significant mark in the dance industry.
Conclusion
As forms of dance change with time, people in different eras used this art fro various
reasons. During the civil rights movements, black dancers used the craft to pass the idea that
although American society did not want to admit, race had nothing to do with people’s ability.
This was through the successful works of dancers like Alvin Ailey. Additionally, in the post-war
era, governments and global organizations used dance to unite people as the Second World War
had caused rivalry among different nations. When bringing back global harmony, modern dance
became universal as people from different parts of the world got the chance to express
themselves through dance. The universalism of dance also inspired communism primarily for the
American government who viewed dance as a right way of passing their foreign policies, and in

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turn funded dancers to conduct world tours. Through the works of different dancers, modern
dance hence became global and was used to achieve different nations’ goals.