New York City Association for Teachers of Health and Physical Education

Description

Written at top: "Albert Greenfeld, 39 - E - 22nd St - N.Y.C.", "Photographs"Historical summary written by Dr. Kate Ramsey (University of Miami History Department): Program for performance by the Haitian Folk Dancers, presented by the New York City Association for Teachers of Health and Physical Education, May 7, 1941. This program documents the historic New York City engagement of the first troupe from Haiti to perform dances of the Vodou religion in the United States. In early 1941, the government of Haiti was invited to send performers to appear at the Eighth Annual National Folk Festival in Washington, D.C., scheduled for that May. Élie Lescot, then Haitian Minister to the U.S. and soon-to-be President-elect of Haiti, turned to Lina Fussman-Mathon a pianist, choral director, and educator who since 1939 had been working with a group of young people on a Haitian folk music repertory, performing at venues in and around the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince. In preparing to represent Haiti at the festival in Washington, D.C., Fussman-Mathon arranged for her young troupe to learn ritual dances of the Vodou religion, which they stylized for stage performance. Accompanied by three drummers, they performed over a three-day engagement at Constitution Hall, and thereafter at Howard University, and in Wilmington, Delaware, in Boston, and, as this program reflects, in New York City. On Sunday May 4, 1941, John Martin, dance critic for the New York Times, announced their upcoming performance at the Washington Irving High School Auditorium, noting, “[t]he outstanding novelty in...

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