Diamond and Juba: The Raucous World of 19th-Century Challenge Dancing with April Masten

Come and hear historian-author April Masten discuss Diamond and Juba: The Raucous World of 19th-Century Challenge Dancing (forthcoming with University of Illinois Press in December). The book tells the story of two extraordinary jig dancers, Irish-American John Diamond and African-American William Henry Lane, aka Juba, who achieved international fame in the mid-nineteenth century as competitors in the art and sport of challenge dancing (jig dancing matches). It follows Diamond and Juba from their earliest days as street and tavern dancers in New York City's Five Points district to the pinnacles of their success in the glittering pleasure gardens and legitimate theaters of New York and London. By offering a close reading of an 1844 advertisement for a “Great Public Contest” between these two rival talents, Masten will demonstrate how she rescued from obscurity the social world that created this Black-Irish dance, its women competitors, its association with blackface, and its close connection to the manly art of boxing.

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