William Henry Lane, otherwise known as “Master Juba,” was one of the most “influential figures in the creation of American tap dance.”(1) Tap dancing was argued to have spawn from Lane’s “Juba Dance.” The Juba Dane originated from a slave dance called “patting juba.” Slaves were not allowed to use instruments, so they used their bodies to create their own type of music. The patting juba was said to include “hand clapping, foot stomping, body thumping and thigh slapping.” The Juba Dance took the patting juba and combined it with steps from Irish jig and reel dances, and other dance moves such as “the shuffle, the slide, buck dancing, pigeon wing, and clog.”(2) Lane was not only the original tap dancer, but also the first African-American to perform with a minstrel troupe. As a black man performing for a white audience, Lane was forced to wear blackface makeup alongside his fellow troupe members.(3) Lane gained fame because of his dance moves and made his way up the minstrel totem pole quickly. In 1845, he was the “first black performer to get top billing over a white performer in a minstrel show.”(4) Historian Eileen Southern described the significance of Master Juba, claiming that the character was "a link between the white world and authentic black source materials, whose dancing contributed to the preservation of artistic integrity in the performance of black dances on the minstrel stage."(5)
1)Peters, Paula. "Lane, William Henry/Master Juba (1825-c. 1852)." BlackPast.org. http://www.blackpast.org/aah/lane-william-henry-master-juba-1825-c-1852.
2)"Master Juba The Inventor of Tap Dancing." Master Juba. January 1, 2004. Accessed September 29, 2014. http://masterjuba.com.
3) Ibid.
4) Ibid.
5) Peters, Paula. "Lane, William Henry/Master Juba (1825-c. 1852)." BlackPast.org. Accessed September 29, 2014. http://www.blackpast.org/aah/lane-william-henry-master-juba-1825-c-1852.