Hidden Bibliographic Details
| Varying Form of Title: | History Makers video oral history with Najwa I
Najwa I
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| Other authors / contributors: | Najwã, interviewee.
Crowe, Larry F., interviewer.
Stearns, Scott, director of photography.
HistoryMakers (Video oral history collection), production company.
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| Sound characteristics: | digital
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| Digital file characteristics: | video file
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| Notes: | Videographer, Scott Stearns.
Larry Crowe, interviewer.
Recorded Chicago, Illinois 2004 December 21.
Vendor-supplied metadata.
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| Summary: | Nonprofit founder and dancer Najwa I was born Arnell Pugh in Clarksdale, Mississippi. Instructed by Panamanian performer, Jimmy Payne, Najwa studied Afro-Cuban and calypso dance. She graduated from Harrison High School in 1952. That same year, she joined Larry Steele's Smart Affair tour in Australia. Najwa performed on stage with icons like Duke Ellington and Count Basie. In New York City, she studied African dance. At the Cat and Fiddle Club in the Bahamas, Najwa learned to dance with fire. She taught ethnic dance at the Julian Swain Dance Theatre and at Chicago's Better Boys Foundation. In 1977, she launched the Najwa Dance Corps in Chicago. The group offered classes in dances of West Africa and the Caribbean, as well as contemporary African American dances. Najwa I is the recipient of the Woman in Dance Award, the Woman of the Year Award and the African American Arts Alliance's Paul Robeson Award.
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