Why Michael Jackson danced like no one else

The way people move is as unique as their DNA -- indeed, it is their DNA in action, living proof of their singularity. But most dancers have to give it up to become professionals, to lose themselves in the style of a school, a choreographer, a company, an image of unanimity.

Not Michael Jackson. It was his supreme achievement as a dancer to remain indomitably himself and, in the process of entertaining us, to offer a vision of expanded human potential. What's more, long before excesses and obsessions claimed him, he helped turn MTV into DTV, making television the place where dance films set to new music inspired a generation with their creative power and originality.

Best seen in his music videos (where his vocals are pre-recorded so he doesn't have to wear a mike), the components of his personal style are easier to list than duplicate. Start with isolation: Each move alone as if in a close-up, sudden and incredibly sharp. Weightlessness: The sense of freedom from gravity and a body with no mass or muscles, just pure torque. Transformation of the mundane: shadow-boxing and other familiar moves drawn from athletics and pop dance renewed and heightened through a spectacular sense of flow and delirious speed.

Like the brilliantly calibrated gliding steps that formed his signature moonwalk, Jackson's nervy, high-velocity turns seemed to operate in zero gravity, and his finest dance performances gave the illusion of being a momentary impulse, almost accidental in their perfect balances and other evidence of faultless technical control. If his high-pitched vocal sound simulated perpetual adolescence, the way he moved kept him super-stylized and ageless -- a lover, a monster, a streetwise idealist at home in many cultures and a smooth criminal too.

The finest music-video choreographers who worked with him took what was supremely his and taught it to his backup dancers, expanding the scope of Jackson's style and grounding it in a muscularity and masculinity that kept it from looking over-finicky or effete. A skinny kid in a red-satin baseball jacket might not have one chance in hell of stopping a gang war, but the late Michael Peters made us believe in “Beat It” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uqxo1SKB0z8) the galvanic group surges that Jackson generated.

His film performances eventually grew compromised by a reliance on special effects and directors with no talent for shooting dance -- among them Francis Ford Coppola, who managed to undermine Jackson, Gregory Hines and Fred Astaire in various projects, making him Hollywood's champion dance-killer. But Jackson's energy and commitment always remained exciting, even when his directors and an edge of narcissism tainted the result. 

Obviously, it is difficult to separate Michael the dancer from the increasingly grotesque celebrity and pedophile suspect that he became, a disfigured creature desperate for attention and profoundly alienating even in the brief, bizarre news clips that defined him in recent years. There is plenty of evidence that he was a seriously disturbed and lonely man, forever remaking not merely his public image but his physical being. We know that he tried to change his nose and then his whole face, maybe even his race -- and that, like many of us, he reportedly stayed in deep denial about aging.

But if he didn't want to look like himself, he always danced liked no one else. That was his triumph. And that's why we should remember how he worked his lithe, articulate, hair-trigger body more than all the operations, marriages, court cases and financial meltdowns that marked his career.

Most of us never saw him in live performance but think we knew him. Not from the piping, childlike vocals, however catchy, but from the moves -- the unforgettable soul-deep individuality of his dancing. And that's a legacy worth celebrating.  

-- Lewis Segal
            
Formerly The Times' staff dance critic, Segal is a freelance arts writer based in Hollywood and Barcelona.

Related: Michael Jackson's 'Motown 25' performance -- in person

Michael Jackson's dance-centric legacy in today's pop music

Comments

[Palmer]

Amen. I couldn't add or subtract a single word from this article. You nailed it.

[LK]

Great article. As a person who LOVES to dance, you hit all points with superb detail. Thank you for touching this aspect of his life. He was magic on the floor.

[Gimme A BREAK!]

As in many deaths, the praise comes TOO LATE. Yes, I too was shocked and disappointed in what MJ may have done, over the past 12 years...but, understanding how much HE PAID to be a child star, that likely, NEVER KNEW childhood's simple joys, it's impossible to deny or impinge his GREATNESS as an entertainer.

Your piece here, Lewis, will find no critics....MJ's dancing was his own, and inspirational, like Gene Kelly and few others. So very sad, MJ could not have completed his 'comeback,' but in death, he may even be bigger and 'better.'

[mike]

what a beautiful--and beautifully written--article. thanks, mr. segal.

[Lexter]

Every little part of this article is superbly written. The last part was my favorite for the ending.

Well done!

[Cricket]

I will never forget watching him dance, he is an IKON and his moves would literally give me chills. No one has moved me like that while watching them perform. May he rest in peace as it is so painfully obvious he couldn't be at peace here on this earth plane anymore. His music and dance will live on in my mind and heart though. God bless you Michael and your family.

Excellent article Mr. Segal.

[Rochelle]

This article reminded me of what I loved the most about Michael Jackson -- his dance. I have been transfixed by his moves so many times -- the James Brown impersonations he did as child, the Robot he and his brothers performed on all of those 1970s specials, and of course the Moonwalk.

This article is flawless. Thanks so much for rekindling those memories.

[andrew]

R.I.P mj ill miss u i love your red jacket on thriller i always wanted it so bad but u look better with it but ill remeber ur style ur dance n music RIP MJ

[lovely]

michael was a man that i grow up wacthing on tv an become one of the most outstanding dancer and a wonder at his work.For the many people who came to know him as person and a music icon he will be miss in all our homes and lives.May the lord be with his family and friends god bliss.

[julie]

perfect summation. I emailed this to every dancer I know.

Thanks, btw, for mentioning Francis Ford Coppola's horrid, horrid directing of dance. Cotton Club drove me up a wall - here FFC had a chance to archive some of the great aging hoofers, Honi Coles, Henry LeTang, and he blew it with fancy meaning less cross-cutting! - and I think Gregory Hines (of blessed memory) made Tap partly as an answer back. Every bit of dance in that movie was uncut sequences and full body shots.

[Als]

RIP. so unexpected and unreal..... he will definitely be missed and remembered.

[thom]

Writers like you give the rest of us limp willies. Excellent, brilliant , and beautiful! written about a man who made the world a better place by living. I wish he could have read this. Well done LS, FT

[Roxette]

Wow gousebumps....

[John]

Great article on his dancing. It's very hard to know what to say about him, and how to say it. He had such a physical influence on us. Some nice attempts at speaking about his death I just read here:
http://www.pandalous.com/nodes/michael_jackson_is_dead

[ray]

may god bless Michael Jackson- the best there will ever be.

[Shirley Jaffe]

A wonderful description of an extraordinary dancer
As a 60+ actress had great good fortune to be in l995 Brit Awards EARTH SONG cast and experience seeing MJ working his absolute magic in the flesth. The Billy Elliott song "Electricity" says it all - for me he's up there with Danny Kaye, Judy Garland and Olivier as the stars who light up the stage.

Incidentally none of the British press or media, to my knowlege, mentioned that performance and how it was spoilt by a foolish pop singer who was drunk and fancied his share of the limelight. Perhaps they are all ashamed (the press, I mean) of how they failed to condemn that irresponsible bit of sabotage.
If any of that cast read this, do get in touch with me.

My great sympathy to the bereaved family - and to Kenny and all the other performance "family" who have lost the chance to work with Michael again.

Shirley Jaffe

[Jon]

I guess what the story is trying to say is Michael was self-taught.

[Karmic]

I never spoke English in my childhood. I had heard of Michael Jackson, but hadn't ever seen him dance or sing. Recently after his death, I got curious and watched him on youtube. Oh My Goodness, I hadn't seen a magic like him ever before. He totally made it to the top of my favorite artists. Truly the milestone in performing arts. I am so sad that he is no more and I only got to know him after his death.

[Donald Frazell]

MJ did not invent the moonwalk, nor was anywhere near being the best dancer of the last century. There were dozens who had been filmed doing such a routine from as far back as the 30s, even Fred Astaire did similar steps, and was a much better dancer.

Michael was but a continuation of a black dance tradition, as Sammy Davis had been before him, and a better dancer in his youth.

Search for the youtube video. The birth of the moonwalk.

[alexus]

you did not give me good evidence of michael jackson