Throwback Thursday and William Henry
Lane
Born around 1825 in Providence, Rhode
Island, William Henry Lane is often called the “father of tap dance”. He was
the first African American to get top billing over a white performer in a
minstrel show.
First hired by P.T. Barnum to perform at Barnum’s American Museum, Lane
soon found work in the dance house of Five Points in New York City. Here he
started combining elements of Irish dance with African American dance. He used
his body and feet as musical instruments blending syncopated rhythms of different
cultures. He also entered dance competitions where he soon earned the title “Master
Juba: King of All Dancers”. (Juba and also Jude were names commonly given to
slaves that were often adopted by stage performers. Juba is also the name of a
supernatural being in African folklore.)
In 1848, Master Juba toured with an
all-white minstrel group to England, thus becoming the first African American
dancer to perform there. There he became a sensation, so much so that Charles
Dickens wrote about him in American
Notes.
Master Juba’s innovations influenced dance
on both sides of the Atlantic, and he was instrumental in the development of
tap dance in the United States.
Sadly, he died young in 1852. He was
only in his late 20s.
From the Big
Blue Book of Ballet Secrets
Dance History Factoid #194:
“William Henry Lane is called the father of tap
dancing.”
Link of the Day:
Quote of the Day:
“It had
long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back
and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.”
― Leonardo da Vinci
― Leonardo da Vinci
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