The Dancing Prowess of Michael Jackson...

LindaC781

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Especially in "Bad" and in "Beat It"....what a dancer he is. Good God. He looks like a lithe cougar...a black cat... when he jumps up on the turnstyle like that in "Bad"....and "Beat It" the dance choir is phenomenal!
 
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Great observations. Michael's dancing in "Bad" and "Beat It" is amazing. Very jazz oriented, especially in "Bad". His grace, accuracy, speed and control is beyond breathtaking and he has such perfect lines. What's so amazing about Michael is how fast he is and at the same time how clean he is. Its unbelieveable.
 
Yeah...(I'm not a dancer, but I do notice things! LOL!) I'd say his dancing was clean. It was precise. Everyone did exactly the same move, the same time...just great!
 
the thing is , its not all about the speed. Thats not what impresses me. MJ can dance to a slow song and it can be just BEAUTIFUL. In his sponteneoty of his dance style, hes still aware of all parts of his body,and how it looks, what the audience can see and feel from it. Like someone said,his lines are BEAUTIFUL. No one can do it like him. MJ can dance even at 50 or even 60 and STILL amaze me, even in absence of speed.
 
No, of course speed isn't the only factor. Its just one of many of Michael's strengths as a dancer. He has incredible grace. There is an ease to his movement that is just gorgeous. He is more aware of the subtleties in dance then any other dancer I've ever seen. If I was to compile a list of all of Michael's strengths as a dancer, it would look like this:

Michael Jackson’s strengths as a dancer:

  • His speed: He has lightening quickness to every movement. His limbs and his torso move from one position to the other incredibly fast.
  • His control: He is able to stop himself on a dime, no matter how quickly he seems to be moving, and launch in to a completely different direction, while still retaining his form and neatness.
  • His cleanness: He is very clean with no excess movement. You can see each position he lands in clearly, what angle his arms and legs are; torso, head, etc... And he retains this clarity and cleanness while moving from pose to pose, in between, despite his speed.
  • His performance of interim steps: He executes the smaller steps in between the main poses with as much treatment and diligence as he does the final position. Unlike most dancers, he does not go from step to step by using a sweeping, thoughtless motion, but by using a series of subtle, smaller positions in succession with each other, with seamless, smooth connection, thus achieving optimum fluidity, accuracy and tightness of movement. Again, eliminating any excess movement or sloppiness.
  • His grace: He has incredible ease and bounce to his movement.
  • His coordination: He is able to put every ounce of his body’s energy into a single, concentrated movement, thus giving his dancing an amazing strength, pronunciation and exclamation with every step.
  • His sense of theatre: He has character and attitude to his dancing, making it more then just the execution of steps, but rather the telling of a story and emotion.
  • His style: He has an utterly distinct and recognizable style of dance, putting steps together in a way unlike anyone else.
  • His ability to learn quickly: He has been said to pick up, understand and execute any style of dance step in exceptionally fast time.
  • His lines: He has beautiful, full extension and balance, giving his form a perfect, symmetrical appearance. And he has the ability to hold the extension long enough for it be seen clearly, making a perfect silhouette against a light or dark backdrop.
  • His rhythm: He is able to move in perfect time with the beat and rhythm of a song, emphasizing those sections with specific gestures and steps.
  • His subtlety: He his conscious of quality over quantity, impressing with well executed movement rather then loud, in your face movement, and aware of every aspect of his body, from his fingers and hands to his shoulders and head. Every part of him dances, with equal precisian and dedication, no matter how minuet, it is all executed with the same level of importance to the performance.
 
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Awesome Post!! I didn't know there were that many parts to dancing! Thanks - I learned something new today!
 
Great observations. Michael's dancing in "Bad" and "Beat It" is amazing. Very jazz oriented, especially in "Bad". His grace, accuracy, speed and control is beyond breathtaking and he has such perfect lines. What's so amazing about Michael is how fast he is and at the same time how clean he is. Its unbelieveable.

You are so articulate, I'm jealous. lol I agree 100%.
 
Aww, thank you. Don't be jealous though, you're one of the smartest people around here if you ask me. Plus I can't spell to save my life, so... lol.
 
I am so glad for this forum and you guys....you notice the same things that I do. You are some of the smartest people around here. We have an awesome assortment of fans here, I must admit! :D
 
bump



I think that Bad had the best camera shots to compliment his every dance move that he does, no other director has captured Michael on film the way Martin (cant spell his surname lol) did, I personaly would love to see the 2 team up again
 

I think @filmandmusic already posted this video on another thread (can't remember which one) but wanted to bump this thread and include the vid over here.

@Hiker said this on another thread:

"We don't talk enough about dancing, maybe then I will have something to contribute."

Which got me thinking. f&m started a lovely thread on Michael's signature dance moves which is great but, even so, I feel there really isn't enough discussion about Michael's dancing which seems odd.

Watching this video again reminded me that I generally prefer watching Michael dance choreographed stuff. I do love his freestyle dancing - which is why I'm enjoying BWT 1987 so much - but I think his talent as a dancer really shines through when he has choreographed material to work on. That's when his talent really seems to blossom, imo.
 
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No, of course speed isn't the only factor. Its just one of many of Michael's strengths as a dancer. He has incredible grace. There is an ease to his movement that is just gorgeous. He is more aware of the subtleties in dance then any other dancer I've ever seen. If I was to compile a list of all of Michael's strengths as a dancer, it would look like this:

Michael Jackson’s strengths as a dancer:

  • His speed: He has lightening quickness to every movement. His limbs and his torso move from one position to the other incredibly fast.
  • His control: He is able to stop himself on a dime, no matter how quickly he seems to be moving, and launch in to a completely different direction, while still retaining his form and neatness.
  • His cleanness: He is very clean with no excess movement. You can see each position he lands in clearly, what angle his arms and legs are; torso, head, etc... And he retains this clarity and cleanness while moving from pose to pose, in between, despite his speed.
  • His performance of interim steps: He executes the smaller steps in between the main poses with as much treatment and diligence as he does the final position. Unlike most dancers, he does not go from step to step by using a sweeping, thoughtless motion, but by using a series of subtle, smaller positions in succession with each other, with seamless, smooth connection, thus achieving optimum fluidity, accuracy and tightness of movement. Again, eliminating any excess movement or sloppiness.
  • His grace: He has incredible ease and bounce to his movement.
  • His coordination: He is able to put every ounce of his body’s energy into a single, concentrated movement, thus giving his dancing an amazing strength, pronunciation and exclamation with every step.
  • His sense of theatre: He has character and attitude to his dancing, making it more then just the execution of steps, but rather the telling of a story and emotion.
  • His style: He has an utterly distinct and recognizable style of dance, putting steps together in a way unlike anyone else.
  • His ability to learn quickly: He has been said to pick up, understand and execute any style of dance step in exceptionally fast time.
  • His lines: He has beautiful, full extension and balance, giving his form a perfect, symmetrical appearance. And he has the ability to hold the extension long enough for it be seen clearly, making a perfect silhouette against a light or dark backdrop.
  • His rhythm: He is able to move in perfect time with the beat and rhythm of a song, emphasizing those sections with specific gestures and steps.
  • His subtlety: He his conscious of quality over quantity, impressing with well executed movement rather then loud, in your face movement, and aware of every aspect of his body, from his fingers and hands to his shoulders and head. Every part of him dances, with equal precisian and dedication, no matter how minuet, it is all executed with the same level of importance to the performance.
Also wanted to bump this comment. Brilliant analysis of Michael's dancing ability and his physicality. Wonderful.
 
Thank you so much for bumping this thread! The analysis above is amazing! Michael's perfection in dancing was the first thing that I noticed and made me a fan. The precision of movements, perfect body lines in every step. You can freeze any moment and it would be perfect. His incredible connection to the rhythm! You can recreate the beat by just watching him dance! 💕 💕 💕
 
Thank you so much for bumping this thread! The analysis above is amazing! Michael's perfection in dancing was the first thing that I noticed and made me a fan.
I was into J5 from day one and Michael's vocals def made a massive impression on me. He wasn't my fave Tamla singer but he was brilliant and obviously in a class of his own. But, even at that early stage and even though they were all dancing, he stood out as the biggest talent in the group. It was just so obvious. He was the reason to watch J5 or the Jacksons.

But the real 'moment' was 1983. Beat It video, Motown 25, Thriller short film. For me, that was Michael really becoming a dancer. Which sounds mad cos he'd been dancing since day dot. But 1983 was on a whole other level. I do think the fact that he was now performing choreographed pieces that were telling stories is what made the difference. The J5 and Jacksons dance routines were brilliant and, actually, I think they are massively underrated. Him and Marlon and Jackie clearly worked really hard on those routines and there is some amazing stuff in there. Those routines deserve even more love than they already get. They should be celebrated daily. But they were devised mostly for the confines of pop shows and tv appearances more than anything else. So there were some constraints. Once he started to work with professional choreographers and started to develop his own skill and his own ideas his dancing went up a million levels, imo.

The precision of movements, perfect body lines in every step. You can freeze any moment and it would be perfect.
Exactly so. You'd get a perfect image no matter where you stopped the film. His bodylines are perfect and that's just the luck of his genetic inheritance. Tito, for example, has a very different physique to Michael. But Michael still has to work hard to make the best of that beautiful body of his. He can't just take it for granted and he doesn't. It's not just a beautiful body, it's the awesome talent and the fierce work ethic that he had.

His incredible connection to the rhythm! You can recreate the beat by just watching him dance! 💕 💕 💕
That is such an awesome point. Go, Hiker! That is absolutely true. And just another cool way to enjoy his art. There are so many ways to approach his work.
 
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diet-1.jpg


Here's an interesting image.
 


And here's the video the image comes from. I think this is such an interesting and creative way to respond to Michael's beautiful body lines and to celebrate him as a dancer.
 
Once he started to work with professional choreographers and started to develop his own skill and his own ideas his dancing went up a million levels, imo.
Completely. Raw talent, automatic rhythm is one thing, but working with a choreographer is totally different. Even diamond needs to be polished. The short films would have given him more freedom to focus on dancing separately. While in the concerts I love all the impromptu moves he makes, the choreographed performances like Dangerous are special.
 
That is just the tip of the iceberg, there are several videos of Michael tapdancing in the 70s, he probably picked it up by watching and trying it out by himself
 
That is just the tip of the iceberg, there are several videos of Michael tapdancing in the 70s, he probably picked it up by watching and trying it out by himself
Mm, I'm not so sure. I really think tap is one of the dance forms that you just can't learn by yourself. I did tap as a child and it was easier than ballet, no question, but still really demanding and a lot harder than it looks.

Michael could certainly have fine-tuned his command of it once he had the basics under his belt but I don't think you can learn it except by working with a teacher, imo.

But this here little video that you found, I really love it. He gets to express himself in a different way. There's something loose and light and free about his movements in this video which I love.
 
He was around 20 years old in the video I posted. He looks fluent enough so he has had years of practice before being able to perform like that.

He was just a natural, he danced like James Brown aged 9... how did he learn it? By watching of coure, they were too poor for dancing lessons….

Michael is self taught
 
He was around 20 years old in the video I posted. He looks fluent enough so he has had years of practice before being able to perform like that.

He was just a natural, he danced like James Brown aged 9... how did he learn it? By watching of coure, they were too poor for dancing lessons….

Michael is self taught
I got the impression from the quote I saw that the tap dancing lessons happened when he was older, i.e. not a child. By the time he was in his teens they could afford dance classes. Didn't they send Janet to dance classes and singing classes? I'm sure they did. The Jacksons were doing fine, financially, by the time Michael was a young teenager so paying for dance lessons would have been easy enough.

Dancing like James Brown is not the same as tap. It's just different. When I was a kid we all used to imitate James. Some of us were crap, some of us not so bad. None of us could have imitated Bill Robinson or Ann Miller. Michael absolutely was a natural, no question. But I'm not convinced that someone can learn tap dancing just by watching. Not even Michael Jackson.

Michael is a self-taught dancer. I'm just not so sure he taught himself tap dance. Working with a dance teacher is no different to him working with Seth Riggs on his vocal technique. And I love the idea of him as a dance student. I think that's really exciting. But it isn't something I've seen mentioned until now so I probably won't ever find out the full story.
 
I loved to tap as a kid, one of the reasons I love Michael. 🥰

That would be very entertaining @filmandmusic :ROFLMAO:
My tap shoes were red. I LOVED my red tap shoes. I still miss them, all these years later.

I think my fave tap dancer from the Hollywood golden era was Ann Miller. She wasn't the biggest name compared to Eleanor Powell, Fred Astaire, Vera Ellen. And I loved all of those. But Ann Miller was my person.
 
My tap shoes were red. I LOVED my red tap shoes. I still miss them, all these years later.

I think my fave tap dancer from the Hollywood golden era was Ann Miller. She wasn't the biggest name compared to Eleanor Powell, Fred Astaire, Vera Ellen. And I loved all of those. But Ann Miller was my person.
So cute!! :D

Oh they're all great, especially Fred Astaire and Ann Miller.
 
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