How Michael Jackson Learned the Moonwalk

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Male: In 1983 as Michael Jackson, feel high on the successive thriller. 47 million American tuned and sees his first ever on stage solo performance of Billie Jean at a concert celebrating 25 years of Motown. Now, his popularity was about to go into orbit.

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Male: Michael did not know what he is going to do on Billie Jean and everything which I he made it up on the spot which is unbelievable and I was back stage doing his performance, with Billie Jean with the smoking the temptation in the four tops and glance and they would just went on.

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Male: Every person who ever had anything to do with Motown is showed up that night to everybody. When he performed Billie Jean and that was it. (Laughing) I mean after that was the finale.

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Male: I probably remember that moment until the day I die. The place was full of ex-Motown stars and they just went bumpy when he did that walk a minute was just a magical moment in time.

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Female: It became the same moment of his television career. That night, he crossed over into a whole new audience.

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Female: The moonwalk is a dance that the kids were doing on the streets and Michael came along later and he had a guy by the name Jeffrey Daniels to teach him to do the moonwalk and Jeffrey taught him to do the moonwalk and he was good at it. When he did it everybody saw it and just thought this was the most wonderful thing they had ever seen not really knowing it was a dance that is already out there.

Male: The back slide is actually supposed to be like, if you were to be walking forward and suddenly you are in an escalator and as you are walking forward, this escalator is pulling you backward as you continuing to walk forward. That is the illusion of the back slide and the moonwalk, is that you actually walking but the ground is pulling you back and if you can do it with that illusion then you are doing it more or less looking like pulling yourself back like your legs are tagging you back. It is not suppose to look that way.

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Male: Michael called it the moonwalk, which actually the moonwalk is another dance. The moonwalk is actually dance that we do that makes it look like you are on the moon and it has less gravity than you would have on earth. Michael somehow called the backslide, the moonwalk. And commercially, I think maybe it worked.

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Male: Michael is funky. He is James Brown type of funky. He dances inside the music.

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Male: When I was dancing with the electric do-do-do and we are doing body popping. It was never 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 it was just like we did not count, which is by sound effects and we dance inside the music with the beat and that is how it was and that is how Michael dances.
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Male: Michael is a workaholic. He never goes “Okay, I am tired let us go. Okay, let us quit.”

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Male: That is how determined he is and I guess that is why he became the greatest entertainer in the world.

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Male: I remember I saw him in Japan during the history tour. I mean, he shout out from the bottom of his stools and landed on the stage and just stood there. People are crying and screaming and he has not even moved yet. He has not even move and they are crying and screaming.

(Crowd Applause)