In Marcel Marceau's obit today it was written that Marceau's Walking Against The Wind mime bit was MJ's inspiration for moonwalking - anybody heard this before?
[Edited 9/24/07 16:08pm]

thedoorkeeper said:

Shut the hell up please, no young black kid in LA in the late 70's would know who the hell this guy was. Michael jackson inspiration was some party he went to in the late 70's early 80's and so saw some kid killing these poplocking moves, then Michael was like ole shit that shit is crazy, i have to bring this shit to the masses, got some dude from Soul Train to teach him those moves and bang Billie Jean with that crazy drum beat, Michael knew it was time to get bizzy

thedoorkeeper said:

Yeah, i heard it on radio on the other day, dont know where they got that from, he learned it from streetdancers.

Just heard from a MJ forum that Marcel did choreography "Childhood" with Michael for a performance they were going to give on the "One Night Only" HBO special. That would have been top if they did that as MJ is very good with those glass window moves (or whatever you want to call them)

qvgangsta18 said:

MJ could possibly have caught Marceau's act back in the 60's. He made appearances on Ed Sullivan. MJ likes those old-time stars & acts - Liz Taylor, Katherine Hepburn, Fred Astaire, Benny Hill - MJ admiring Marceau is not that hard to believe.
[Edited 9/24/07 16:09pm]

Damn! They trying to steal the moonwalk from the hood and give it to France!

thedoorkeeper said:

He was too busy studying Joe Tex, James Brown and Sammy Davis before he knew of a Marcel Marceau and he met Marcel in the late-'70s but he wasn't the one who "taught" him the moonwalk.

JEFFREY DANIEL DID THO!!!

Timmy84 said:

I've also heard that as well, and that may be the most accurate of them all.

MuthaFunka said:

They always trying to take what we created first.

It's all good though. Mimes and breakdancers are actually all the same except mimes don't actually spin their heads or do splits, they just stand there and mimic certain moves.

Timmy84 said:

Timmy84 said:

That is what I thought too.

thedoorkeeper said:

First I ever heard of it was on the news this morning. I was like WTH? They just kicked Jeffery Daniels to the curb.

Jefferey Daniels on the Backslide aka the Moonwalk:
http://www.youtube.com/wa...ed&search=
[Edited 9/24/07 18:00pm]

Najee said:

cant see anyone here crediting MJ for the moonwalk.

http://www.youtube.com/wa...hdak0hLnpE
[Edited 9/24/07 17:41pm]

kash said:

I think most people on the Org are aware that Michael Jackson did not invent the moonwalk. The average person on the street (in particular those under the age of 15 or 20), however, think so.

WHO WERE Mikes choreographers?

kash said:

I didn't say anyone on this Web site credited Michael Jackson for inventing the Moonwalk, did I? I'm referring to people whose first reference point to the dance move was when MJ performed it on "Motown 25."
[Edited 9/24/07 17:50pm]

kash said:

That's it!
They're not streetdancers! I saw all those fans on MJNO say streetdancers and it pissed me off. They're bboys aka breakdancers! I'm one so that term is stupid.

Najee said:

well without interviwing the nation. MJ deserves praise. He took it, showcased it, a reward for his hard work i suppose. MJ didnt say he invented the moonwalk from his own mouth so dont know why people seem upset.

paisleypark4 said:

For what? Motown was on the fly but he worked with Jeffrey Daniels on a few things. Check the video I posted up thread.

kash said:

Yeah. While Michael Jackson is not the greatest dancer in the world, his amazing mastery of different dance moves definitely popularized them.

kash said:

Save the dance was performed for several years by breakdancers and then in the general public BEFORE Michael Jackson did it on "Motown 25." And when I mean "before," I mean the dance already went through its cycle of being popular, matured and starting to become passe over the course of several years. So I don't give MJ credit for a dance that was regularly done by a large segment of the U.S. population before he did it on TV.
[Edited 9/24/07 17:57pm]

Najee said:

But I think there was excitement generated by his performance of the moonwalk. I have read stories of children being in awe after seeing the Motown 25 special. In particular he popularized the moonwalk in regions of the world that was not aware of such a dance move.

And was not the term "moonwalk" coined after the performance? Or was it coined before?

Rodya24 said:

The dance move was always called the Moonwalk, since it was created in the late 1970s.

And just because there were people who had never seen the Moonwalk before MJ did it (at that was least partly because black U.S. culture was segregated largely from mainstream culture) doesn't mean it should be taken to some poor assumption that he invented the dance move (which is what an apparent news story on Marcel Marceau incorrectly stated). That's like giving MJ credit for making the jheri curl popular just because certain segments of the population were not familiar with the hairstyle before MJ.
[Edited 9/24/07 18:03pm]

Najee said:

its a question of how popular, just like most i saw it for the first time in 1983. He's sort of made it his own, he makes it look the best through his posture, clothes, white socks, the actual song, stage etc.

Najee said:

While I do not credit Michael Jackson credit for inventing the moonwalk, I can understand why people (in particular those of my generation) think he did. Most people do not bother to research these things, which is a shame.

kash said:

Let me guess -- Michael Jackson also was the first popular black person you saw with a jheri curl, so that means he invented it or made it popular as well, right?

It sounds more of a case that you were not familiar with black U.S. pop culture in the late 1970s and early 1980s and didn't go to a place where black people danced -- is that supposed to be my fault?
[Edited 9/24/07 18:12pm]

Rodya24 said:

My problem with it is that the non-black U.S. segment of society has been saying Michael Jackson invented the Moonwalk for 20-plus years, so people have heard it so long and often they automatically take it as gospel.

Najee said:

Like you said, it was a dance move well known in black US popular culture before Jackson performed it on Motown 25. But because of segregation, most people in the world were unaware of what a moonwalk was before his performance.

Question for you: I remember you writing that you are going to turn 40 soon. Did you watch the Motown 25 special? If so, what was the experience like? Did you and your classmates talk about the performances at school?

Najee said:

I hear you. This is embarrassing to admit, but I thought so before doing quick research on the Internet.