For International Dance Day: The Master Juba Bicentennial

Originally posted on Travalanche in 2010. Updated for this bicentennial occasion.

William Henry Lane (a.k.a Master Juba) came along way too early to be in my “Stars of Vaudeville” series, but a good chunk of the vaudeville experience would have been impossible without him. Juba, you see, was instrumental in inventing the sort of dancing that became known as tap. And it was by way of just the sort of artistic marriage that distinguishes the best American expression.

Lane is believed to have been born in Providence, R.I. in 1825. The year isn’t known to a certainty; it’s undocumented but some historians believe that year to be accurate. The day isn’t known at all, so I have chosen International Dance Day on which to celebrate him. Let there be JUBA-LATION THROUGHOUT THE NATION!

What’s in a name? Well, there’s something in the name “Juba”. The term (sometimes spelled giouba) comes from Africa and describes a percussive form of dance involving hand clapping, foot stomping, and slapping parts of the body as though it were a drum. It’s sometimes called “hambone”, but it’s also known as “patting juba”. This style of dancing came to America and the Caribbean by way of enslaved people, and continued to develop ever since. In the 19th century “Juba” was a common nickname for some people of color, dancers in particular. In fact, there was more than one Master Juba performing in America at the time we are writing about.

Lane moved to the Five Points section of New York where close proximity to the Irish caused him to emulate their dance forms (jigs, clogs, etc). Inflecting it with African moves inherited from his own culture he naturally merged the two, creating something  new and compelling. Basically every tap dancer from that day to this owes something to the innovations of Master Juba. In the 1840s he began performing in saloons and minstrel shows, rapidly growing famous thereby. P.T. Barnum presented him at the Vauxhall Garden (New York’s one), apparently claiming he was the famous Irish dancer Jack Diamond in blackface! Later there was a famous dance-off between Lane and Diamond, which Lane won, for he could dance in Diamond’s style as well as his own. He quickly acquired a semi-legendary status akin to Johnny Appleseed or Robert Johnson. Like them, he was indeed a real person.

Charles Dickens actually checked out Master Juba’s act when he came to New York; you can read his “review” in his book American Notes. The British loved Juba. So much so in fact, when Juba visited the city during a minstrel show tour, he simply stayed. As Josephine Baker said when she adopted Paris as her own 80 years later, you’d be crazy not to stay in a place where they treat you like a king, rather than stay in one where you’re considered closer to cattle than to men.  But he only breathed that heady air for four years. He died in 1852 at age 27.

The Brits still honor Master Juba’s memory even if Americans have largely forgotten. On May 4, 2025, the British Association for American Studies is holding a Bicentennial Celebration and Symposium Celebrating Master Juba. More information on their website here.

To find out more about Master Juba and the history of vaudeville, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever edifying books are sold.