Who Is Master Juba The Incredible Tap Dancer
Master Juba: The incredible tap dancer
“The world never saw his equal,” -Edward Le Roy Rice, one of many, many people's sayings about, William Henry Lane. Many people in the 19th century danced in Minstrel Shows, but this one individual dancer changed their perspectives all over the country and world. His style of dancing was something nobody ever tried to create before, using his own culture mixed with other ways of dance.
William Henry Lane or, Master Juba, was one of the most influential dancers to be known back in the 1840’s. Lane tapped his way through many shows, amazing everyone who came to watch. By 1846, he was touring New England and Europe with Pell’s Ethiopian Serenaders and received the top billing as the only African American …show more content…
He used different parts of his feet to make rhythms, and keep time. Syncopated rhythms were revolutionary for the 1840’s time period. His heels were used for the deepest tones, the balls of his feet for the higher, softer tones, other parts to keep his times, and create different rhythms. Along with tap dancing he would also sing, and laugh to add to his vocals for more creative rhythms to make his performances more exciting for the audience. The way he added his vocals, rhythm, footwork, and improve dancing created a new blending style of African dance with British Isle Folk dance is very well recognized today. Now, in the 21st century, students studying Tap Dancing can attribute styles to Lanes’ way of …show more content…
Many of these dances went around during the Minstrel. They would perform black face, a type of dance which was when the white people would paint their faces black, dress up as plantation slaves then would act like plantation slaves. They would imitate the music, dancing, even try talking how they expected them to speak. Only white actors could perform in the minstrel shows, but in 1838, William Henry Lane began to perform in them. The rules still applied for him with the black face paint, or he couldn’t perform at all. All of this was for entertainment purpose, this went on from 1840 till the very end in 1950 because of the advance in civil rights.
“There never was such a Juba as the ebony-tinted gentleman who is now drawing all the world and its neighbours to Vauxhall. Such mobility of muscles, such flexibility of joints, such boundings, such slidings, such gyrations, such toes and such heelings, such backwardings and forwardings, such posturings, such firmness of foot, such elasticity of tendon, such mutation of movement, such vigour, such variety, such natural grace, such powers of endurance, such potency of pastern, were never combined in one nigger. Juba is to Vauxhall what the Lind is to the Opera House.” (Master Juba, The Inventor of
“The world never saw his equal,” -Edward Le Roy Rice, one of many, many people's sayings about, William Henry Lane. Many people in the 19th century danced in Minstrel Shows, but this one individual dancer changed their perspectives all over the country and world. His style of dancing was something nobody ever tried to create before, using his own culture mixed with other ways of dance.
William Henry Lane or, Master Juba, was one of the most influential dancers to be known back in the 1840’s. Lane tapped his way through many shows, amazing everyone who came to watch. By 1846, he was touring New England and Europe with Pell’s Ethiopian Serenaders and received the top billing as the only African American …show more content…
He used different parts of his feet to make rhythms, and keep time. Syncopated rhythms were revolutionary for the 1840’s time period. His heels were used for the deepest tones, the balls of his feet for the higher, softer tones, other parts to keep his times, and create different rhythms. Along with tap dancing he would also sing, and laugh to add to his vocals for more creative rhythms to make his performances more exciting for the audience. The way he added his vocals, rhythm, footwork, and improve dancing created a new blending style of African dance with British Isle Folk dance is very well recognized today. Now, in the 21st century, students studying Tap Dancing can attribute styles to Lanes’ way of …show more content…
Many of these dances went around during the Minstrel. They would perform black face, a type of dance which was when the white people would paint their faces black, dress up as plantation slaves then would act like plantation slaves. They would imitate the music, dancing, even try talking how they expected them to speak. Only white actors could perform in the minstrel shows, but in 1838, William Henry Lane began to perform in them. The rules still applied for him with the black face paint, or he couldn’t perform at all. All of this was for entertainment purpose, this went on from 1840 till the very end in 1950 because of the advance in civil rights.
“There never was such a Juba as the ebony-tinted gentleman who is now drawing all the world and its neighbours to Vauxhall. Such mobility of muscles, such flexibility of joints, such boundings, such slidings, such gyrations, such toes and such heelings, such backwardings and forwardings, such posturings, such firmness of foot, such elasticity of tendon, such mutation of movement, such vigour, such variety, such natural grace, such powers of endurance, such potency of pastern, were never combined in one nigger. Juba is to Vauxhall what the Lind is to the Opera House.” (Master Juba, The Inventor of