Choreography
Jackson was influenced by musicians including Little Richard, James Brown, Jackie Wilson, Diana Ross, Fred Astaire, Sammy Davis Jr., Gene Kelly, David Ruffin, The Isley Brothers, and the Bee Gees. While Little Richard had a substantial influence on Jackson, James Brown was his greatest inspiration; he said:
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“Ever since I was a small child, no more than like six years old, my mother would wake me no matter what time it was, if I was sleeping, no matter what I was doing, to watch the television to see the master at work. And when I saw him move, I was mesmerised. I had never seen a performer perform like James Brown and right then and there I knew that was exactly what I wanted to do for the rest of my life because of James Brown.”
BILLIE JEAN
According to choreographer David Winters, who met and befriended Jackson while choreographing the 1971 Diana Ross TV special Diana!, Jackson watched the musical West Side Story almost every week, and it was his favourite film; he paid tribute to it in Beat It and the Bad video.
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Jeffrey Daniel taught Michael Jackson the moonwalk. He saw Jeffrey do the moonwalk dance on Soul Train, so he had his manager call Soul Train to introduce him to the dancer. Jeffrey was touring with Shalamar at the time so Cooley Jackson and Casper Candidate went to teach Jackson. However, Michael was not able to pick up and master the technique until Jeffrey returned from tour and worked with him.
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Although Michael states himself during an Interview with Oprah Winfrey in 1993, that he witnessed "the beautiful kids living in the ghettos and inner cities. Who were brilliant and have a natural talent for dancing, including the running man – they came up with these dances and I did was enhanced it".
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Michael performed the moonwalk during a performance of Billie Jean on Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever on March 25, 1983. This special was broadcast May 16, 1983 dressed in his signature black trousers, silver socks, silver shirt, black-sequined jacket, sequined glove, and black fedora, Jackson spun around, posed, and began moonwalking and from then on, the moonwalk became Jackson’s signature move for his song Billie Jean.
DANCE STUDIO
MICHAEL IN SLO-MO
DO THE MOONWALKER
An illusion is involved in creating the appearance of the dancer gliding backwards. Initially, the front foot is held flat on the ground, while the back foot is in a tiptoe position. The flat front foot remains on the ground but is slid lightly and smoothly backward past the tip-toe back foot. What is now the front foot is lowered flat, while the back foot is raised into the tiptoe position. These steps are repeated over and over creating the illusion that the dancer is being pulled backwards by an unseen force while trying to walk forward. Variations of this move allow moonwalking to appear to glide forward, sideways, or even in a circle.