Our world is full of illusions. Some of them scare, others beckon and fascinate. The art of creating illusions, as you know, is the prerogative of magicians and card cheats. But a good dancer with the right qualities is able to assemble the movements into a dance in such a way that he turns it into an unforgettable spectacle that borders on fantasy. Such a great Dancer was and will remain the King of Pop Michael Jackson. " moonwalk” in his performance was forever imprinted in the memory of fans and even people far from dancing as the greatest illusion of choreography.
Birth of a legend
The first performance of the movement now known as the "moonwalk" belongs to the American jazz singer Cab Calloway and dates from 1932. Later, other famous showmen used similar elements in their performances, including the famous French mime - Marcel Marceau. It is believed that it was his dance production of "Walking against the wind" that provided the prerequisites for the performance of this movement by Michael Jackson in his 1983 performance on the "Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever" program, which became a legend. His unique style performance glorified this element for centuries. Since then, the name of Michael Jackson, the title of the song "Billie Jean" (to which the dance was first performed) and the "moonwalk" are inseparable and symbolize the era of great dance achievements, just like the invariable attributes legendary singer and a dancer: a black hat, a white glove on one hand and socks with silver threads.
origin of name
The name "moonwalk" this dance received due to the visual lightness and smoothness of the dancer's movements. After all, science has long known that the Moon has much less gravity than our planet Earth. Therefore, the steps of a person on the moon are light, weightless and barely touch the surface of the planet. This can be seen in the frames of the first filming of the landing of people on the moon and, comparing what they saw with a dance movement, in Once again to make sure that Michael Jackson's "moonwalk" has no analogues and is rightfully considered "unearthly".
Moonwalk technique
The "moonwalk" as a dance element is footwork that imitates walking forward. But as a result of a special performance technique, it looks like sliding backwards, as if something is pulling the dancer into reverse side. The movement is an alternate change in the positions of the legs: from the toe to the full foot and vice versa. To achieve the effect of smooth sliding, you need to move your foot back without lifting it off the floor and without lifting your heel. When the toes of the sliding foot are at the level of the foot standing on the toe, the latter falls on the entire foot, and the first rises to the toe. This change of position occurs throughout the movement. Needed to perfect the technique good plastic and speed. After working out this element, movements of the shoulders and head are connected. Now it's a real moonwalk. But in order to achieve a decent level of its implementation, you will have to spend more than one month in the training room in front of the mirror.
Michael Jackson
Moonwalk, or Moonwalk: Michael Jackson about himself
I want to touch the truth and be able to express this truth through what you have experienced and felt - whether it be joy or sorrow - then your life will acquire more meaning and maybe you will be able to touch the hearts of others. This is the highest content of art. For the sake of such moments of insight, I live.
Michael Jackson
Just kids with a dream
I've always wanted to learn how to tell stories, you know, stories that come from my soul. I would like to sit by the fire and tell people stories - to captivate them, to make them laugh and cry, so that I can lead them anywhere with just deceitful words. I would like to tell them stories that would stir their souls and transform them. I've always been drawn to this. You can only imagine how great writers must feel knowing that they have such power. Sometimes I feel like I could do the same. I would like to develop this ability in myself. In a way, songwriting requires the same skills, creates emotional ups and downs, but a story is a sketch. This is mercury. Very few books have been written about the art of storytelling, about how to captivate listeners, how to bring people together and amuse them. No costume for you, no makeup, nothing at all - just you and your voice, and your powerful ability to lead them anywhere, transform their lives, at least for a few minutes.
As I begin to tell my story, I want to repeat what I usually tell people when they ask me how I got started with the Jackson Five: I was so young when we started that I don't really remember anything. Most people are lucky: they start their careers old enough, when they already perfectly understand what they are doing and why. But, of course, it was not so with me. They remember how it all happened, but I was only five years old. When you step on the stage as a child, you are still too young to understand much of what is happening around you. Most of the decisions that affect your life are made in your absence. So here's what I remember. I remember that I sang like a catechumen, danced with great pleasure and gave too much for a child. I don't remember many of the details, of course. All I remember is that the Jackson 5 really started taking over the stage when I was only eight or nine years old.
I was born in Gary, Indiana, in the evening, in the late summer of 1958 - I was the seventh of nine children in our family. My father, Joe Jackson, was born in Arkansas and in 1949 married my mother, Katherine Skruse, originally from Alabama. The following year, my sister Maureen was born, having the hard time of being the eldest child. She was followed by Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Latoya and Marlon. And after me, Randy and Janet were born.
Some of my earliest memories are of my father working in a steel mill. It was hard, mind-numbing work, and he played music to distract himself. And mother worked at this time in a department store. Thanks to my father, and also because my mother loved music, she constantly sounded in our house. My father and his brother created the Falcons (Falcons) group, which performed R-and-B for us. My father, like his brother, played the guitar. They performed famous songs early rock and roll and blues by Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Otis Rodding - the list goes on. They were amazing styles, and each had its own influence on Joe and on us, although at the time we were too young to understand it. Falcons rehearsed in the living room of our house in Gary, so I was raised on R-and-B. We had nine children in the family, and my father's brother had eight, so together we made up a huge family. We did music at our leisure - it rallied us and, as it were, kept our father within the family. This tradition gave rise to the "Jackson Five" - later we became the "Jacksons" ("Jacksons") - and through such training and musical tradition, I began to develop independently and created my own style.
Almost all of my childhood memories are connected with work, although I loved to sing. I wasn't forced to do it by stage-loving parents like Judy Garland. I sang because I liked it and because singing was as natural to me as breathing. I sang because it was not my parents or relatives who encouraged me to do it, but my own inner life in the world of music. There were times - and I want to make it clear - I would come home from school and, as soon as I dropped my books, I rushed to the studio. There I sang until late at night, in fact, when it was already time for me to sleep. There was a park across the street from the Motown studios, and I remember looking at the guys playing there. I looked at them and wondered - I simply could not imagine such freedom, such a carefree life - and more than anything in the world I wanted to be so free that I could go out into the street and behave like them. So I had sad moments as a child. But this happens with all children who have become "stars". Elizabeth Taylor told me she felt the same way. When you work at a very young age, the world can seem terribly unfair. No one forced me to be little Michael the soloist - I chose it myself, and I loved it - but the work was hard. When we were recording for an album, for example, we would go into the studio right after school, and sometimes I would get a bite to eat and sometimes I wouldn't. There just wasn't time. I returned home exhausted, at eleven or even twelve at night, when it was long overdue to sleep.
Why does Michael Jackson moonwalk? January 27th, 2018
Who doesn't know Michael Jackson's moonwalk. Why is she called that?
"Moonwalk" or "sliding back", or "glide" (English moonwalk) - a dance technique when the dancer moves backward, while imitating the movement of the legs as when walking forward. The technique became popular around the world after Michael Jackson performed the dance moves during the performance of "Billie Jean" in March 1983. She later became his calling card", and on this moment one of the most renowned technicians in the world.
But what about the moon? What, Armstrong walked on the moon backwards? Why is it possible to walk on the Moon like this and why? I don't find any connection with the moon.
Let's figure it out...
If you believe that Michael Jackson invented the "moonwalk", then you are very wrong. It is impossible to determine the specific inventor of the moonwalk, just as it is impossible to attribute the invention of rock and roll to one artist. This dance move was, as writer Shanna Freeman put it, "the product of over 70 years of dance evolution." Cab Calloway claimed to have performed similar dance back in the 30s. The earliest recordings where you can see something very similar to the movement of Jackson, belong to the dancer Bill Bailey.
Maybe it seemed to Jackson that the illusion of movement "forward and backward at the same time" looked like "like walking on the moon," but there were hardly many who thought: "That's right! Just like Neil Armstrong!" However, the name invented by Michael, of course, stuck.
"Michael called this movement the moonwalk," says Daniel, "but the moonwalk is actually a different dance." In any case, it used to be different. “We called the moonwalk a movement that creates the illusion that you are on the moon, where gravity is less than Earth. And Michael somehow managed to call the backslide a moonwalk. But from a commercial point of view, it was probably a coup," Daniel says, chuckling himself at how modestly he put it.
Michael Jackson's moonwalk has nothing to do with the laws of gravity. “The backslide is really meant to make it look like you're walking forward and all of a sudden there's an escalator underneath you pulling you back,” says Daniel. - This is the illusion of sliding: you seem to be walking, but the earth is pulling you back - this is how it looks if you make the movement correctly. If you are clearly pulling yourself back, if you can see it in your legs, then this is a wrong performance.
Before the movement was called backslide, it probably had other names as well.
In the mid-80s, shortly after Jackson made the moonwalk popular, one of the legendary black artists of the first half of the 20th century, Cab Calloway, was rumored to have performed it during his shows in Manhattan. A 1985 article from The Crisis stated: “When asked if it was his teenage grandson who taught him the move, Calloway replied: “What do you mean ... we danced it back in the 30s! Only then it was called The Buzz.”
But if you want to know where Jackson himself saw the moonwalk, then you can not guess. The answer is contained in one word: Shalamar.
It was Shalamar member Jeffrey Daniel, a very famous dancer in the R&B/dance community from Solid Gold, who brought Michael's attention to what was then called "the backslide". Although it is believed that the “moonwalk” is a complicated backglide, in which, in addition to the legs, the shoulders and head move.
On May 16, 1983, at the Motown 20th Anniversary TV Concert, Michael Jackson performed "Billie Jean" and 50 million viewers saw the later legendary Moonwalk. The audience gave a standing ovation to the magnificent Michael.
But this performance of Michael Jackson was noticed not only by his fans. Such authorities in the dance world as Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly. They openly admired his dancing and accepted Michael into an unofficial fraternity of dancers. The moonwalk became so popular that different countries there were even competitions for the best performance of this dance. And of course, Michael's popularity grew instantly: the Thriller album (1984) won seven Grammys and eight American Music Awards.
Let's see how it was...
Michael Jackson's autobiography was titled Moonwalk and he also starred in a 1988 movie called Moonwalker.
sources
On May 16, 1983, Michael Jackson performed "Billie Jean" in a television concert organized to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of Motown. At the end of this TV show, in which fifty million viewers saw moon walk or " lunar path”, the audience gave a standing ovation to the magnificent Jackson. Let's find out how this dance originated.
The appearance of the moon walk
At this time, the moonwalk has already appeared on the streets. This owl-like dance was born as a breakdance movement, created by black guys who danced at the intersections of streets and ghettos. They also taught Michael the dance, showed him the basis, which he continued to work out and complicate. Jackson moved forward and backward at the same time, as if walking on the moon. To the question: "Who taught him to dance like that" - Michael invariably answered the same thing: "Training."The popularity of the moonwalk and Michael himself
Michael's performance was analyzed in detail by the authoritative Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly. They expressed their admiration for his dancing and accepted Michael into an unofficial fraternity of dancers. After Michael's performance, the moon track became very popular. In the USA, there were even competitions for the best dance performance. Consequently, the popularity of Jackson himself also increased. His next album Thriller (1984) won seven Grammys and eight American Music Awards.how to dance
Many are interested in how to learn to dance the moon track? In fact, these movements cannot be broken down into pas and described in words. The best way out in this situation is to buy video cassettes with Jackson's songs and videos. Constant training and repetition dance moves for the singer will lead you to desired result. Also, Jackson's 1988 autobiographical book, Moonwalk, may be of some help.MICHAEL'S MOONWALK
If you believe the statement that every person has his own fifteen minutes of fame in his life, then Michael Jackson had this significant moment on the evening of May 16, 1983. The singer, already known by this time, produced the effect of an exploding bomb by performing a song on anniversary concert record company Motown Rec, and specifically the first performance of his now legendary.
Story
By this "finest hour" - the moment that the singer himself calls one of the happiest in his life, Michael Jackson walked for twenty years. After all, the "king of pop" began his career at the age of five in the Jackson 5 family ensemble, which was organized by Michael's father - Joe Jackson - himself in the past blues guitarist. Initially, the group included four older brothers of Michael, but, quickly noticing outstanding musical ability baby, Joe Jackson included him in the family ensemble. Mature vocals beyond her years and unusual dance plasticity Michael as a soloist quickly attracted the attention of the public to the team, allowing them to win a couple music competitions. Then there were several years of performances at clubs in nearby cities and states of America. And in 1968, six years after the formation of the group, the Jackson 5 signed their first contract with record company Motown. During the eight years of cooperation with this company, the group regularly released hits that occupied the top lines of the American charts. These years have not been in vain for solo career Michael Jackson: it was with Motown that the singer at the age of fourteen released his first single, which climbed to the top of the American chart. However, due to a lack of creative freedom, the Jacksons decided not to renew their contract with Motown, and in 1976 they signed a new agreement with the record label Epic, thus losing the right to be called "Jackson5". Now they are just "Jacksons". Another important step towards dizzying career for Michael was his participation in the African-American version of the film "The Wizard of Oz", on the set of which he met Diana Ross, who became his friend on long years, as well as with a man who played a huge role in creative life singer - Quincy Jones. It was with his help that Michael's solo album "Off the Wall" was recorded, which brought him to the category american stars first magnitude. Quincy Jones also produced the singer's triumphant album Thriller, the best-selling album in the history of music.
Such success can be called natural, given Michael Jackson's desire for excellence in all areas of his activity, including dancing. The singer experienced his first success in this field after performing the song "Dancing Machine" in 1974. Here is how he describes this event: “When the song “Dancing Machine” came out, my main task there was a search for dance movements that could decorate the performance, make it more spectacular and exciting. And on the set of "Soul Train" during the performance of "Dancing Machine" I did a street dance move called "robot". I soon learned what the power of television was - climbed to the top of the charts and after a few days it seemed that every child in the USA was dancing a "robot". I've never seen anything like it again." In fact, it was only the beginning. At that time, Jackson did not know what fate awaited his "moonwalk" (steps forward, creating the illusion of moving backwards) - the singer's trademark. The name of this movement has become synonymous with its success. But Michael is not the inventor of the moonwalk. According to the Internet encyclopedia wikipedia.org, these steps were first demonstrated by the famous French actor Jean Louis Barraud in the 1964 film "Children of Rayk" in a classic pantomime called "The Walk". And the same source indicates that the first performer of the "moonwalk" in the form known to us was the American dancer and singer Jeffrey Daniel and he introduced it in 1982 in Shalamar's show "A night to remember". Interestingly, before performing the "moonwalk" on anniversary evening Motown Rec, Jackson had already used this movement in his performances, but the audience "blew up" just then - on May 16, 1983. And it was not only the television broadcast that provided this event with a multi-million audience, it was just that everything coincided that evening - the song, the dance, Jackson's mood; the rhythm of the music seemed to be born from the movements of Michael - in a word, harmony reigned on the stage. It is curious that the singer last day I didn't know how to "form" my speech. He thought ahead appearance- asked his assistants to find him a black spy hat and a black jacket, got one white glove and prepared white sequined socks (from which, by the way, his mother was always horrified), but how to go on stage, what to do and how to dance - Michael Jackson I couldn't decide for a long time. The insight came to him the night before the performance, in the kitchen of his home in Los Angeles. Jackson turned on the music and just let his body move to the rhythm, and then everything fell into place - he saw the entire number. It only remained to bring it to life. This is how Michael Jackson himself described this event in his book “Moonwalk”: “I went on stage and began to move to the rhythm of the music, I did what I planned, and only at the end of the performance I could not fix the rack on my toes, I began to fall and put one foot up. Because of this, I left the stage a little upset, because I used to do everything perfectly. But, as it turned out, no one noticed this mistake, and backstage people began to approach me and congratulate me on an excellent performance. And the next day, Fred Astaire himself called me at home and praised me in every way he could, saying that I was "an evil dancer, just like himself." And these words were the greatest reward for me.”
The MTV channel played a big role in the singer's career, launching one of the first of his mini-movie "Thriller", and then other videos for songs from the album of the same name. Jackson was incredibly lucky that the next rise of his career coincided with the start of the music channel, from whose huge audience the fans and followers of the singer were formed. MTV already had a huge impact on its teenage viewers, shaping the fashion for music, clothing, dance. And, as one would expect, Jackson's dancing talent found his admirers. Unusual for that time, sharp and clear movements performed by the singer were naturally combined with smooth transitions. Amazing turns and an unforgettable moonwalk, the ability to “respond” with the body to every rhythm and move “as if without bones” - all this won Jackson the glory of a brilliant dancer. According to one of the "star" choreographers, eminent Tony Stone, Jackson belongs to that small number of stars with whom he works "on a par" - without adjusting, without trying to create a dance that would be within his power, and sometimes even something learning from him.
More than twenty years have passed since Jackson's triumphant performance, but "his work lives on." There are many links on the Internet to virtual dance schools that promise to teach the "moonwalk"; parodists and numerous imitators of Jackson first learn the famous movement, which today is considered one of the most recognizable dance movements in the world. It is believed that Michael's "moonwalk", popularized by the media, "unwound" popping - a dance that marched from the streets of the impoverished areas of American metropolitan areas to the global stage.
How to learn the Moonwalk
1. Stand sideways in relation to the mirror. Legs together. Hands are in a free position. Body weight - on both legs.
2. Put left leg back, on the toe, and slowly transfer the weight of the body to it, slightly leaning back. Stay in this position and feel the emphasis on the left leg.
3. Try to move your right leg back as smoothly as possible, in a sliding motion, without lifting it off the floor.
4. The right foot should slide as far back as possible. The weight of the body is still on the left leg.
5. Lower the heel of the left foot and at the same time lift the heel right foot. Now calmly transfer your body weight to your right leg (this is very important point in "Moonwalk").
6. And now your left leg is free. Now she can safely slide on the floor back, behind her right foot. As soon as it slips, change the heels of the left and right legs (lower the right one, raise the left one) and transfer the body weight back to the left leg. Thus, you returned to position number 2. Loop these movements one after another and move backward relative to the floor. Position number 1 is the starting position, it does not need to be repeated. Once your legs get used to certain positions, start working on fluidity and pace. Watch the level of a straight line on the floor and above your head. Success also depends on flooring and footwear. You probably noticed that Michael Jackson never slipped in sneakers. Their friction force is higher than that of shoes. I advise beginners to start learning movements in socks. Be sure to track your movements in the mirror.
