African-American Concert Dance: THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE AND BEYOND
This work focuses on eight major African American  dancers/choreographers: Helmsley Winfield, Edna Guy, Randolph  Sawyer, Ollie Burgoyne, Charles Williams, Asadata Dafora,  Katherine Dunham, and Pearl Primus. Seeking to fill a need for  more information on these artists and to add to modern dance  history, Perpener (dance, Univ. of Illinois, Urbana) applies  extensive research in these excellent profiles. In one of the  stronger themes of this study, he shows how African American  dancers fought through racism to develop a new art form. There  are interesting sections on the 1936 "Voodoo" Macbeth production  directed by Orson Welles with an all-black cast, which involved  Dafora's African Dance Troupe, and on Edna Guy's relationship  with Ruth St. Denis. This book provides valuable background on  these artists and also includes a general overview of the 1950s  through the 1990s. Recommended for academic libraries with  dance, theater, and African American studies  collections. Barbara Kundanis, Batavia P.L., ILCopyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.