Sections 5, 6, 7, and 8: Creating Contemporary American Identities through Movement

Jawole Willa Jo Zollar

This section continues the theme of dancemakers who use their art to express their American identities and as a means of communicating about social and political issues. It introduces a third artist, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, and her dances entitled Walking with Pearl. These are particularly appropriate pieces for discussion because ADD SPACE HERE Zollar choreographed them to honor the artistic legacy of Pearl Primus and to show how that legacy is connected to her own artistry. The first dance is titled Africa Diaries (2004) and refers to the trips to Africa that Primus took, beginning in 1948, to conduct the anthropological research. The second dance is Southern Diaries (2005); it refers to the trip which Primus made during the summer of 1944 to live and work with poor migrant workers in the rural South. In Southern Diaries, Zollar incorporates reconstructions of Strange Fruit and Hard Time Blues with her own choreography, creating a theatrical continuum between two generations of modern dance artists.

Classroom Activities

• Discuss how the search for identity—as well as social and political protest—continues to be a concern among artists today. Ask students about the examples they found in the Assignment.
• View Zollar’s Walking with Pearl.; Remind students that in observing dance, they should looking for elements of movement and for how the choreographer creates meaning through gestures, images, and connections to literature, other dances, and every day life. Remind students of their work with the Movement Analysis Worksheet.
• Writing assignment:
  • Allow students to free-write (3 minutes) their responses to the dance, especially writing descriptions of the dance. Afterward, ask writers to harvest verbs from their responses. The verbs could then be read aloud as a list.
  • Ask students to use these verbs to write a poem or descriptive paragraph about Walking With Pearl.
  Ask students to share their writings in small groups.

Discussion Questions

• Identify differences and similarities among the works by Martha Graham, Pearl Primus, and Jawole Willa Jo Zollar.
• Zollar’s work makes deliberate use of Primus’s words and dances. Discuss the impact of this borrowing. Think of additional artists who refer to other artists’ works in making new work.
• How have conditions facing African-American women changed from Primus’s time to Zollar’s time? What are some of the things that have remained the same?

Assignment

• Students research a dance form practiced by members of their family and/or community and learn steps from the dance. This material will become the basis for creating their own dance in the next two sections.

• Start
• Primary Sources
• Introduction
• 1.) Martha Graham’s Frontier
• 2.) Pearl Primus’ The Negro Speaks of Rivers
• 3.) Martha Graham’s Steps in the Streets
• 4.) Pearl Primus’ Strange Fruit and Hard Time Blues
• 5.) Jawole Willa Jo Zollar
• 6.) Martha Graham’s American Document
• 7.) Creating Contemporary American Identities through Movement
• 8.) Creating Contemporary American Identities through Movement


• Comment on this module

• VIDEO

• Martha Graham
• Frontier
• Low
•   
• Pearl Primus
• Strange Fruit
• Low, Medium, High
•  
• Jawole Willa Jo Zollar
• Walking with Pearl: African Diary
• Low, Medium, High
•  
• Walking with Pearl: Southern Diary
• Low, Medium, High

  TEXT

• Martha Graham
• I am a Dancer
• American Document
• Pearl Primus
• The Negro Speaks of Rivers
• The Borzoi Book of Modern Dance – New Leaders: Pearl Primus
• My Statement
• African American Concert Dance – The Harlem Renaissance and Beyond
• Strange Fruit
• Hard Time Blues
• Jawole Willa Jo Zollar
• Artistic Influences and Company Development
• Other
• Movement Analysis Worksheet
• "Words for Movement"
• Sklar, D. "Movement Observation Guidelines"
• Siegel, M. (1991). "Rethinking Movement Analysis". Unpublished manuscript used with author's permission (excerpt).