Moonwalk MJ

The moonwalk or backslide is a dance technique that presents the illusion of the dancer being pulled backwards while attempting to walk forward.[1] A breakdancing move, it became popular around the world after Michael Jackson executed it during a performance of "Billie Jean" on Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever on March 25, 1983. It subsequently became his signature move, and is now one of the best-known dance techniques in the world.[2][3]

There are many recorded instances of the moonwalk, originally known as the backslide or "walking on your toes", being used before Michael Jackson used it. Similar steps are reported as far back as 1932, used by Cab "Minnie the Moocher" Calloway.[4] It was first recorded in 1955 in a performance by tap dancer Bill Bailey.[5] The French mime artist, Marcel Marceau, used it throughout his career (from the 1940s through the 1980s), as part of the drama of his mime routines. Marceau's famous "Walking Against the Wind" routine was the original influence that Jackson drew from, in which Marceau pretends to be pushed backwards by a gust of wind.[6]

James Brown used the move,[7] for instance in the 1980 film The Blues Brothers. David Bowie was probably the first rock musician to perform it, though he remained stationary.[8] An embryonic version of the move appears in Bowie's 1960s mime pieces; he had studied mime under Étienne Decroux, Marcel Marceau's teacher,[9] and under Lindsay Kemp, who had trained with Marceau. By the time of his 1974 Diamond Dogs Tour, Michael Jackson was among those attending Bowie's Los Angeles shows, later remarking on Bowie's strange moves.[10] Another early moonwalker was Jeffrey Daniel, who moonwalked in a performance of Shalamar's "A Night To Remember" on Top of the Pops in 1982.[11] Also in 1982, Debbie Allen performs a moonwalk during a scene with Gwen Verdon in Season 1, Episode 10 (Come One, Come All) of the 1982 TV series Fame.[12] In the movie "Flashdance", released in 1983, the move was used in the breakdance scene, where a street performer, with an umbrella prop, mimed the wind blowing him backward as he first walks forward, fighting the wind, then starts moonwalking backwards.[13]

Michael Jackson
The dance was brought to widespread public attention in 1983, when Michael Jackson performed it during a television special, Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever on March 25 that year. Dressed in his signature black pants, silver socks, silver shirt, black-sequinned jacket, single sequinned glove, and black fedora, Jackson spun around, posed, and started moonwalking. Ian Inglis writes that Jackson encapsulated a long tradition of African-American dance movements in that one performance. The audience gasped when they saw the move. Nelson George said that Jackson's rendition "combined Jackie Wilson's athleticism with James Brown's camel walk."[7]

The step has two distinct types. One is called the turn walk. This is usually performed very quickly giving the impression that the dancer is walking quickly in a circle. The other circular moonwalk type is known as the 360 or Four-Corner Moonwalk and is often done much more slowly in a floating style. This involves sliding a heel back (usually the left heel), pivoting both heels to change direction, and then pivoting the non-sliding heel 45 degrees. Other moonwalk variants include the "sidewalk" or "side glide", in which the dancer appears to glide sideways, and the "spotwalk", in which the dancer appears to moonwalk in place.