With illusion techniques and a lot of practice. One of the great skills of the king of pop was to combine different body movements to create visual effects in his dance steps – which often seemed humanly impossible. The famous Moonwalk, for example, reverses the mechanics of walking by placing the body’s weight on the opposite leg to the support leg. The antigravity slope, immortalized in the video for “Smooth Criminal” (1988), did not involve any special talent: the dancers used support cables and, during the shows, resorted to special shoes that held them to the ground. Ah, it is worth mentioning that the Moonwalk is not a creation of Jackson: in the 1930s, the jazz singer Cab Calloway already performed a similar step, the “backslide”. With or without gimmicks, you can’t deny that Michael Jackson was a dance genius and took the sport to new heights.
LEARN TO DO THE MOONWALK
– (Deborah Horiuchi/Strange World)
1. Extend the right foot in front of the body, stepping fully on the ground, while the left is supported only with the toes
two. Shift your body weight onto your left leg. Slide your right foot back very slowly
3. When the right foot is parallel with the left, switch positions.
4. The right foot, now stationary, is arched to support the body weight, while the other lowers the heel to the ground and performs the glide
5. Repeat the movements in a coordinated fashion to create the illusion of walking backwards.
Bends, but does not fall
– (Deborah Horiuchi/Strange World)
The antigravity inclination, in which Michael and his dancers were at 45 degrees without taking their feet off the ground, could be performed with two techniques: with cables or with exclusive shoes – which were even patented by the singer. The secret was in the sole of the shoe, which had an opening in the heel that fitted strategically placed pegs on the stage. But even with this “little help”, it was still necessary to have good physical preparation in the lumbar region to perform the movement
CONSULTANCY Rodrigo Teaser, interpreter of Michael Jackson