John Diamond (dancer)

John Diamond (c. 1823 – October 20, 1857), aka Jack or Johnny, was an Irish-American[1] dancer and blackface minstrel performer.

Their advertisements exclaimed, "Second night of the engagement of the little 'Wirginny Nigger,' only 12 years old, who can outdance the nation, and come some 'Heel and Toe Breakdowns,' that are a caution to all darkies, and no mistake!

"[5] In February 1841, Diamond extorted money from P. T. Barnum and deserted his former mentor to go on a week-long binge of alcohol and women.

Barnum claimed Diamond had "overdrawn the money due him to the amount of $95 and has during the last week expended a hundred dollars in brothels and haunts of dissipation & vice.

In January 1843, he was in a circus with other blackface performers; the program promised "Negro extravaganzas, songs, dances, and locomotive imitations by Whitlock, Diamond, John Daniels and Gardner."

[7] After the Virginia Minstrels formed in 1843, Whitlock convinced Diamond to perform with them in order to increase the group's exposure.

[3] After their inamicable split, Barnum had replaced Diamond with a young, unknown black man named William Henry Lane.

The new protégé took the stage name "Master Juba" and centered his act on imitations of "all the principal dancers in the United States", followed by his own style.

The favorites are now the dancers, and he who can cut, shuffle, and attitudanize [sic] with the greatest facility is reckoned the best fellow and pockets the most money.

Match dances are very frequently got up, and seem to give general satisfaction, if we are allowed to judge from the crowds who throng to witness them.

We have not had a real, scientific, out-and-out trial of skill since that between Dick Pelham and John Diamond at the Chatham; but it appears we are soon to have another of these refined and elevating exhibitions.

One characteristic step was to lean forward and dangle his hands loosely, look to the side, and slide across the stage with a heel–toe alternation.

[21] Noah M. Ludlow, a theatre manager, wrote that "He could twist his feet and legs, while dancing, into more fantastic forms than I ever witnessed before or since in any human being.