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- “Suddenly the lively hero dashes in to the rescue. Instantly the fiddler grins, and goes at it tooth and nail; there is new energy in the tambourine; new laughter in the dancers; new brightliness in the very candles. Single shuffle, double shuffle, cut and cross-cut; snapping his fingers, rolling his eyes, turning in his knees, presenting be backs of his legs in front, spinning about on his toes and heels like nothing but the man’s fingers on the tambourine; dancing with two legs, two right legs, two wooden legs, two wire legs, two spring legs–all sorts of legs and no legs–what is this to him? And in what walk of life, or dance of life, does man ever get such stimulating applause as thunders about him, when, having danced his partner off her feet, and himself too, he finishes by calling for something to drink, with the chuckle of a million of counterfeit Jim Crows, in one inimitable sound.”
Charles Dickens, in his “American Notes.”
Quoted in Times. June 14 1848
- On Tour in England and Scotland:
...there is a new company of Ethiopian Serenaders, headed by the distinguished Pell, the sultan of singers and the Bonaparte of Bones; also a new banjo-player, full of merit and melody, and a natural nigger, who rejoices in the name of Juba, who, from his vocal value, we are sure, is lineally descended from the very Jubal who, for so many past ages, has been celebrated for his artistic performance on the lyre. The living Juba beats his ancestor hollow. There never was such a Juba as the ebony-tinted gentleman who is now drawing all the world and its neighbours to Vauxhall; there never was such a laugh as the laugh of Juba–there is in it the concentrated laugh of fifty comic pantomimes; it has no relation to the chuckle, and, least of all, to the famous horse laugh; not a bit of it–it is a laugh distinct, a laugh apart, a laugh by itself–clear, ringing, echoing, resonant, harmonious, full of rejoicing and mighty mirth, and fervent fun; you may hear it like the continuous humming sound of nature, permeating everywhere; it enters into your heart and you laugh sympathetically–it creeps into your ear, and clings to it, and all the subsequent sounds seem to be endued with the cachinnatory quality.
The Mirror and United Kingdom Magazine. July 1848
- Well, though the laugh of Juba be wondrous, what may be said of Juba’s dancing? We fancied we had witnessed every description of dance, from the wilds of Caffraria to the stage of the Academie at Paris–we, ourselves, have danced in our day, and we have seen niggers dance before, and in our dancing days have danced the Coosawatchie reel at Pocotaligo, and ‘Ole Virginny neber tire,’ with the yellowskins at Major Bosh Sanderson’s, who owned two thousand niggers at the junction of the Wabash and the Congaree rivers, in South Car’lina, but all these choregraphic [sic] manifestations were but poor shufflings compared to the pedal inspirations of Juba. 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. We hear that Juba has been commanded to Buckingham Palace.
The Mirror and United Kingdom Magazine. July 1848
- His volubility is astounding, and his perfect enjoyment of his own efforts is quite delicious. He trills, he shakes, he screams, he laughs, as though by the very genius of African melody. He would be the Maro and the Lablache of a negro opera-house at Timbuctoo. But his dancing casts into the shade all previous choreographic efforts. St.Vitus was a mere figurant compared to Juba. His limbs seemed to be formed of cacouchoue slightly diluted with guta percha–hence his elasticity and aplomb. Neither the great nor little Vestris, nor St. Leon, nor Perrot may be compared with Juba. His pedal execution is a thing to wonder at, if his flexibility of muscle did not confound us. He jumps, he capers, he crosses his legs, he stamps his heels, he dances on his knees, on his ankles, he ties his limbs into double knots, and untwists them as one might a skein of silk, and all these marvels are done in strict time and appropriate rhythm–each note has its corresponding step and action. Now he languishes, now burns, now love seems to sway his motions, and anon rage seems to impel his steps. Juba’s plantation dance is a sort of terpsichorian illustration of Collins ‘Ode on the Passions.’ One feat which he achieves with his feet excites our especial wonder: he absolutely dances with one foot on the ground and the other one never off it.”
Stirling Journal and Advertiser. August 31, 1849
- But what of Juba, “Boz’s Juba?” To say that he dances as man or nigger never danced before; that he shakes his leg with the spirit of ten Jim Crow’s, and postures as never did Keller or Madam Warton dream of, is nothing. Surely he cannot be flesh and blood, but some more subtle substance, or how could he turn, and twine, and twist, and twirl, and hop, and jump, and kick, and throw his feet almost with a velocity that makes one think they are playing hide and seek with a flash of lightning! Heels or toes, on feet or on knees, on the ground or off, it s all the same to Juba; his limbs move as if they were stuffed with electric wires; and if the Wilis should get him into their tempting snare, certainly he will not be out danced in a hurry. He is the greatest phenomenon in the dancing line that Manchester has witnessed; and his extraordinary performances must excite wonder and astonishment in every observer.
The Manchester Examiner. October 17, 1848
- But his great forte lies in dancing, and here is great indeed. The effort baffles description. It is certainly original, and like nothing that we have ever seen before. It is a combination of almost every quality in art–from the graceful movement of the ‘minuet’ to the highest pitch of terpsichorean illustration–and something more. There is such energy, such rapidity, as is quite novel in the annals of dancing We are impressed with the notion that he is the identical black who ‘danced himself clean out of sight.’ Yet all is in character, all in keeping, and in exquisite time; there is both light and shade. With a consummation of art and tact, he will ‘bring you jump’ from his most frenzied movement to the most subdued demeanour possible and with so much quaintness and grace that the beholder is fairly puzzled which to admire most. In short, his dancing is not only pleasing and amusing, but absolutely marvellous.
Birmingham Journal. December 16, 1848
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