Emerante Morse

Early life Emerante's mother, Amarante Jean Pierre, implored Our Lady of Mount Carmel, patroness of the Carmelite order, to give her a child, a baby girl, "promising that in return she would devote this child to the virgin saint." After her return to Haiti, de Pradines performed in a regular concert series at the Rex Theater in Port-au-Prince. She often sang renditions of traditional vodou songs, "then a novelty in Haitian social life". and was the first Haitian singer to sign a recording contract with a record company. She married Richard M. Morse, a Latin-American scholar and writer from the United States who she met while studying in New York with Martha Graham. Her albums were released internationally, including by Smithsonian Folkways in the United States.

At a young age, de Pradines was a student of Martha Graham. Between 1978 and 1981 Emerante de Pradines Morse taught dance classes in the Athletic Department of Yale University. There, her students learned modern Graham technique as well as Haitian dance. Affectionately known by her Stanford students as Emy Morse, she choreographed several dance productions such as "Carnival!" for which she designed the costumes. Emerante De Pradines Morse made the costumes herself with the assistance of one of her students, Harvetta Silvarya Strozier, whom she taught how to make her designs out of fabric, raffia, ribbon, and other materials - without using purchased patterns.

At Stanford University, Emy Morse was the epitome of beauty and physical fitness. In her late fifties and early sixties, she showed her students how to do all of her warm-up dance steps and stretches as well as every choreographed step and routine whether simple or complex. She stressed the importance of elegant movement and demonstrated in minute detail how such was to be done.

Reception and later life She and her husband had one daughter, Marise, and one son, Richard Auguste. She was also the focus of a 2017 article in the Journal of Haitian Studies.

Death She died on 4 January 2018 at Saint-Esprit Hospital (Hôpital Saint-Esprit), rue Capois, Port-au-Prince, aged 99. At the mass, Emerante Morse's daughter in law Lunise Morse sang the traditional song "Carolina Caro", a favorite of the deceased. Emerante Morse was also remembered and celebrated for numerous philanthropic activities, including education of young people, founding the school La Ruche in Pelerin (Pétion-Ville), and supporting other institutions such as Octane Deslouches Martissant and other schools and cultural centers outside the capital.