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- But it is not the office of the legs alone to do all this; the head, arms, and body generally take full share of duty, and assume such extraordinary positions, that only a being possessed of the power of Proteus could calculate upon taking.
Manchester Courier & Lancashire General Advertiser. Oct 18, 1848
- ...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.
Birmingham Journal. December 16, 1848
- His legs appear one mass of mercurialised musical vitality; and, whilst his feet still seem upon the ground, he contrives to beat distinctly through all the variations of a popular and fashionable tune. He bounds, whirls, and astonishes, by his unexpected and graceful gyrations, which are always, however, in strict accordance with the harmony which it is the province of his activity to exemplify.
Liverpool Journal. November 11, 1848.
- Anything so indescribably astonishing as his truly "original" corn-husking dance we never saw. His legs must be of India rubber; he feet of jointed iron: how else the former can have so much elasticity, and the latter can bear so much beating on the floor, we know not.
Manchester Guardian. October 28, 1848,
- 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.
The Mirror and United Kingdom Magazine. July 1848
- 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 is all the same to Juba; his limbs move as if they were stuffed with electric wires....
The Manchester Examiner. October 17, 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. ...His limbs seem to be formed of a caouchoue slightly diluted with guta percha--hence his elasticity and aplomb.
Morning Post. June 21, 1848
- 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 terpsichorean illustration of Collin's "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.
Morning Post. June 21, 1848
- When warmed by the applause of his auditors, he appears wound up to that pitch of enthusiasm which will not admit him for a moment to feel fatigue. Then it is when his limbs become more supple, his voice more melodious, and his grimaceri more droll and laughter-stirring–each limb is in constant motion, and his face beams with delight. The dance he gave last night was the celebrated Plantation Dance; it was loudly encored, and Juba, in complying with the unanimous demand for a repetition, gave it with increased energy.
Advertiser. June 20, 1848
- His dancing is an affair per se; his steps are unborrowed from schools, unadopted from academies. They are original, novel, peculiar, curious, wonder-exciting, marvellous; toes and heels, ankles and calves, knees and thighs, elbows and wrists, nay even his eyes and the lobes of his ears, and the wool on his caput all dance; it is a sort of wild saltatorial revel, at which every member of the human frame exerts itself for the universal delectation.
Sunday Times. June 25, 1848
- Yet in reviewing a performance so deservedly popular, we may be allowed to remark that it presents one peculiarity which has not been so frequently noticed by our newspapers as we suppose it merits. We allude to the airy lightness and surpassing delicacy of some portion of the dances, and here, as well as in the more unique exhibitions of his art, we are fearless to declare that Juba has no equal, and to be understood must be seen; for certainly no words can possibly convey an idea of his peculiar skill in a province so entirely his own.
Sheffield Times. April 6, 1850
- His rapidity, contortions and distortions, his humour, and his inimitable cachinations, carry the spectators by storm, and force the most apathetic to partake in his mirth and somewhat boisterous fun and merriment.
Times. June 14, 1848
- Such an excess of grinning, of contortions of the face, and distortion of the limbs, of jumping, dancing, and indescribable activity of body were never seen. Such energy of continued motion is highly ludicrous.
Weekly Dispatch. June 25, 1848
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