Ismay Andrews

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Ismay Andrews was one of the earliest major teachers of African dance in the United States. Her career started in 1929 as a stage actress, and she taught dance in community centers in New York City from 1934 to 1959.

Stage actor[edit]

Andrews began her career in as an actor in stage plays in New York City. These included a musical comedy, Great Day, at the Cosmopolitan Theatre in 1929,[1][2] Ol' Man Satan in 1932, and the operetta Africana in 1934.[2] She also appeared in a 1932 film, The Black King.[3]

Dance[edit]

In the early 1930s, Andrews studied dance under Asadata Dafora.[4][5] People in the United States in this era largely regarded Africans as savage and animalistic, and Dafora was part of bringing an awareness of their humanity and an appreciation for their culture.[6] The new interest in African music and dance offered a new positive black identity rooted in ancient, pre-colonial traditions. This movement in art and culture was connected to the Harlem Renaissance and the Négritude movement.[7]

Andrews taught in New York community centers from 1934 to 1959.[8] She began teaching African dance at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem in 1934.[9][10] This makes her one of the earliest major teachers of African dance in the United States, along with Efiom Odok and Dafora.[11] She also taught at Mother African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, which was one of the primary centers of African American culture in New York City at the time.[12]

Her students included Chief Bey,[12] Pearl Primus,[13] Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson,[14][15][16][17][18], Alice Dinizulu,[19] Alexandreena Dixon,[20] Eartha Kitt, Eleo Pomare, Bea Richards (later a prominent actress), and Brunilda Ruiz.[8]

Ismay Andrews never traveled to Africa, but learned African traditions through researching in public libraries.[21][12]

1940s[edit]

In the 1940s, Andrews focused on the dances of East Africa.[10] She founded and directed a dance company known as the Swa-Hili Dancers who performed re-constructed East African dances.[22][10][23][a] They performed on stage at the Stage Door Canteen, in cabarets, and for the USO during World War II.[24]

The African American community in Harlem strongly supported Andrews cultural work throughout her career.[12]

Recognition[edit]

In May 1971, in a formal ceremony, the Modern Organization for Dance Evolvement (MODE), founded by Carole Johnson and others in New York, awarded Andrews their inaugural dance award for "a person who contributed lo the black experience in dance".[8]

Death[edit]

She died in poverty in New York City.[22]

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ See "Dance Observer". Dance Observer. Vol. 12–13. New York City. 1945. OCLC 1565860. and "Dances of Anatolian Turkey". Dance Observer. New York City. 1959. OCLC 1565860.

Citations[edit]

  1. ^ "Mayo Methot". IMDb.
  2. ^ a b Broadway League.
  3. ^ Richards 1998, p. 192.
  4. ^ Heard & Mussa 2002, p. 143-144.
  5. ^ DeFrantz 2004, p. 287.
  6. ^ Mundundu 2005, p. 37 citing Emery (1988, p. 250) and Needham (2002, p. 233)
  7. ^ Mundundu 2005, p. 37.
  8. ^ a b c DeFrantz, Thomas (1998). "To make black bodies strange: Social critique in concert dance of the Black Arts Movement" (PDF). Theatrical Interventions. p. 90.
  9. ^ Creque-Harris 1991, p. 48-49.
  10. ^ a b c Long 1989, p. 53.
  11. ^ Cohen 2012, p. 13-14.
  12. ^ a b c d Heard & Mussa 2002, p. 144.
  13. ^ Heard 1999, p. 181.
  14. ^ "Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, African American Composer & Conductor Who Co-Founded Symphony of the New World, Was Born June 14, 1932". June 14, 2013.
  15. ^ "Flutist Laurel Zucker & Pianist John Cozza Release 'Lil Lite O' Mine: Flute Music by Composers of African Descent,' Including Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, Born June 14, 1932". June 14, 2015.
  16. ^ "Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, African American Composer & Conductor".
  17. ^ "Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, African American Composer & Conductor Who Co-Founded Symphony of the New World, Was Born June 14, 1932".
  18. ^ Schomburg Center 2017.
  19. ^ Green 2008, p. 99.
  20. ^ "Chiku Awali African Dance, Arts & Culture of Rockland, Incorporated". Archived from the original on June 29, 2018. Retrieved October 9, 2017.
  21. ^ Cohen 2012, pp. 14.
  22. ^ a b Heard & Mussa 2002, p. 146.
  23. ^ Dance Magazine 1946, p. 26.
  24. ^ Heard & Mussa 2002, p. 144-145.

References[edit]

Further reading[edit]

  • Bean, A. (2002). A Sourcebook on African-American Performance: Plays, People, Movements. Worlds of Performance. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-134-67393-3.
  • Belnap, S. (1957). Guide to Dance Periodicals. University of Florida Press.
  • Dixon Gottschild, B. (1996). Digging the Africanist presence in American performance. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press
  • Garafola, L. (Ed). (1994). Of, by, and for the people: Dancing on the left in the 1930s. Madison, WI: AR Editions, Inc
  • Long, R. (1989). The Black tradition in American dance. New York: Rizzoli International Publications.
  • Malone, J. (1996). Steppin’ on the blues: The visible rhythms of African American dance. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
  • Prevots, N. (1998), Dance for export: Cultural diplomacy and the Cold War. Hanover, NH: University Press o f New England.
  • Sherrod, E.G. (1998). The dance griots: An examination of the dance pedagogy of Katherine Dunham and Black pioneering dancers in Chicago and New York City from 1931 to 1946. Dissertation Abstracts International, 463. (UMI No. 9826197)
  • Nash, Joe (1931), Black dance collection, 1939-1989, OCLC 81234360
  • Smothers, Ronald (October 22, 1972). "But Blacks Contend Issue of Racism is Overriding". The New York Times.
  • Weisbord, R.G. (1973). Ebony Kinship; Africa, Africans, and the Afro-American. Contributions in Afro-American and African studies. Greenwood Press. p. 196. ISBN 978-0-8371-6416-8. Retrieved July 7, 2018.
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