Moondance (Trivia)

Gman496

Super Moderator
Staff member
The moondance was not created by Michael Jackson but was mastered by him.

The moondance was being performed on the streets by kids long before it was made famous by Michael.

Jeffrey Daniel dance choreographer was the first person to perform "the backslide", physically complicated dance technique, now known as the "moonwalk" on television, during a performance of Shalamar's "A Night to Remember" on, the British music show, Top of the Pops. (Note how unimpressed the audience were by his excellent moonwalk in this video)



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The song was a hit in 1982, almost a year before Michael Jackson moonwalked for the second time on the Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever television broadcast.



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Jackson was a big fan in the 1970s of Soul Train. He soon met, learned from, and later hired dancer/choreographers from the Soul Train TV show. Dance partners Geron "Casper" Candidate and Cooley Jackson taught Michael Jackson the moonwalk. Casper states that he still has the check stub Michael Jackson used to pay Cooley and himself for teaching Michael the moonwalk.

The name "moonwalk" is one which was dubbed by the media, not by Jackson or Daniel.


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Jeffrey Daniel explains the moondance by comparing it to walking in the wrong direction on an escalator.

He insists, you've got to walk forward while the ground is pulling you backwards in order to create the illusion.



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Yep......and if I remember correctly, he paid them about $10,000 to learn that move. He practiced it for a while, as he wanted to perform it during Motown's 25th Anniversary Show. I remember watching that show live in Gary, IN......and you could hear the people scream when he performed it!!
 
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