Norton studied art in New York, eventually becoming the studio assistant to the Russian-born sculptor Alexander Archipenko (1887-1964). Critical of artistic currents, she developed her own sculptural style that blended elements of ancient pre-Columbian and African sculpture with the simplified forms of the Cubists. With coffee-bean eyes reminiscent of a Congolese power figure, Dancers features a couple engaged in the jitterbug, an energetic, fast-paced dance craze inspired by “Call of the Jitterbug,” a 1934 recording by jazz singer and bandleader Cab Calloway (1907-1994).
