Nora Holt Negro Dance (1921) Performed by Samantha Ege

Nora Holt (c.1885 - 1974) was born in Kansas City and died in Los Angeles. Holt was a prominent name in the Chicago Black Renaissance, as well as a leading figure in the Harlem Renaissance. Negro Dance, composed in 1921, is her only surviving piece for solo piano. It draws inspiration from African-American antebellum rural dance music, most notably the pattin’ juba. As Solomon Northup described in Twelve Years a Slave, “the patting is performed by striking the hands on the knees, then striking the hands together, then striking the right shoulder with one hand, the left with the other—all the while keeping time with the feet and singing.” These percussive, rhythmic influences give us a glimpse into how Holt might have approached her wider works.