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Where did the word 'Moonwalk' orginate from?

I don't have a clue but my guess would be that either Michael thought it up or the public did.

And ofcourse because it looks a little like he's walking in a place with no gravity. Just - sliding by in he's usual cool manner!
 
in corettas book michael said he learned it from some kids that lived in the ghetto,except going 4ward he wound up going backwards lol idk how he did it but he did lol
 
I think the 'ghetto kids' he mentions are the Electric Boogaloos who are famous dancers. But MJ fans usually tend to not like them for some reason. But i dono if they coined the name "moonwalk"
 
It was derived from an original dance known
as the circle moonwalk. part of it is called the
turn walk which makes the dancer look as if
they are turning in circles.
The other circular moonwalk type is known as the
360 or Four-Corner Moonwalk and is often done much slower.
and give the illusion of the dancer seems to be floating on air
in a sense?
 
Billie The Kid Jean said:
I think the 'ghetto kids' he mentions are the Electric Boogaloos who are famous dancers. But MJ fans usually tend to not like them for some reason. But i dono if they coined the name "moonwalk"
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I'm pretty 100% sure that it came before the Electric Boogaloos too, lol. I've seen it done in earlier videos than the Electric Boogaloos. AND, I just learned in my Dance class that there was a dance called the "Virginia Essence" waaay back in the day that, my book says, was extremely close to the moonwalk. I'll have to go back and look at my book to get the specifics, and I'll relay it back.
Apparently what MJ does is the "backslide", and doing it in a circle is called the "moonwalk"- according to the electric boogaloos.

Whatever though, Michael just looks SO good doing it, lol
 
There's a song from the 1960s by Joe Simon called "The Moonwalk Part 1&2". My mom has the 45 single. I have his greatest hits on a CD, but it only has Part 1.
 
Joe Simon (1969)

b58666ffe68118d6269e98df4523d23fb276fb5d.jpg

 
michaelsson;1844958 said:
in corettas book michael said he learned it from some kids that lived in the ghetto,except going 4ward he wound up going backwards lol idk how he did it but he did lol
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It has been suggested by many people that Michael Jackson learned about the Moonwalk dance move from the American dancer Bob Fosse.

Apparently, Michael Jackson saw the dance moves from Bob Fosse’s ‘A Snake In the Grass’ musical number (from Fosse’s ‘The Little Prince’ musical film, released in 1974) and he decided to adopt them later for his own performances.

One of those dance moves was also the Moonwalk one.

The resemblance (between Fosse's and Michael Jackson's later dance moves) is too striking to be ignored, especially when it comes to the ‘Billie Jean’ performance.
 
Michael surely got inspired from Bob Fosse for several moves... but not really the "Moonwalk" (the backwards-slide).

Tap dancer Bill Bailey did something in 1955 that looks much more like the "Moonwalk". (More than anything Fosse did.) So this move developed a long time before it reached Michael.


But we're off topic. The question was about the term, which probably was around since english speaking people dreamed about walking on the moon.

Wikipedia claims that Michael renamed the move, previously known as "The Buzz" or just "backslide", into "Moonwalk".
 
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Michael claimed he got the moonwalk from kids in the street. he said it was like walking on the moon which i agree when i see him does it. he says it in his book the moonwalk.

now if that's not true he should of been honest about and gave credit to the person who actually created it. it wouldn't be no differences compare to all the stuff he got some of his inspiration.
 
Michael said he got his inspiration from old movies, short films, children, nature, cartoons, and disney old classic cartoons etc, classical music. so, looking at this now really doesn't matter because he was honest what he got his inspiration from.

i notice when Michael moonwalk and dance is sort like "magic" as he claimed. like the way he sometimes danced was meant to tell a story while many of us miss it which this right here makes him an entertainer also. :)

whenever people get a chance just watch Michael dances you will see what i'm talking about. :)

Michael should of been also and clown or an mime. i think he did one time. bless him may he rest in peace. :heart:
 
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NatureCriminal7896 said:
Michael claimed he got the moonwalk from kids in the street.
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That was his typical fluff PR talk. He also said that he doesn't like to go too much into details when it comes to who did what with his music etc. He loved to say things that sounded nice and that don't distract from enjoying the act itself.

Michael had several professional street dancers training him in the 70s and 80s, so that's for sure one source for a lot of the moves out of the street/breakdance realm.
 
oh. lol. yeah he was always like that. while it didn't bother me it kinda made things hard for some of us to understand. though i'm not mad at him or anything i knew he was shy guy so. hahaha
 
you know looking back Michael did get some his dance moves from other things while putting his own twist with it. for example i was watching a video a few days ago with him dancing it was in the 90's and he was doing his dance while adding dance moves during the time. hahaha that was really neat and cool of him.

this probably explain the kids in street. hahaha. you know the pepsi commercial from 1984 kind of did that too. hahaha awesome. :)

Michael loved the kids. ^_^
 
Electro;4272711 said:
Michael surely got inspired from Bob Fosse for several moves... but not really the "Moonwalk" (the backwards-slide).

Tap dancer Bill Bailey did something in 1955 that looks much more like the "Moonwalk". (More than anything Fosse did.) So this move developed a long time before it reached Michael.

[video]https://youtu.be/y71njpDH3co?t=123[/video]

But we're off topic. The question was about the term, which probably was around since english speaking people dreamed about walking on the moon.

Wikipedia claims that Michael renamed the move, previously known as "The Buzz" or just "backslide", into "Moonwalk".
Click to expand...

It is Jeffrey Daniel who said that Michael Jackson renamed the ‘backslide’ dance move into ‘Moonwalk’.

But of course, Jeffrey Daniel could be wrong about that, or Jeffrey Daniel simply lies.

Actually, ‘Moonwalk’ is a dance move with a broader meaning and refers to any dance move that gives the illusion of a dancer’s less gravity while dancing, and as such, that dance move had pre-existed centuries before Michael Jackson was even born.

This also means that this particular dance term (‘Moonwalk’) was also created centuries before Michael Jackson was born, and certainly it is not a dance term created by Michael Jackson, or by the American singer Joe Simon (in 1969) as hinted above.
 
mj_frenzy;4272787 said:
Actually, ‘Moonwalk’ is a dance move with a broader meaning and refers to any dance move that gives the illusion of a dancer’s less gravity while dancing, and as such, that dance move had pre-existed centuries before Michael Jackson was even born.
Click to expand...

Let's stay with decades. Otherwise it's just wild speculation. ;)

And I've never seen the term "Moonwalk" being used for anything else but that specific backslide move.
If you make such claims, give examples. Otherwise it's again just speculation / your personal interpretation.
 
looking back at my last post made me really miss micahel he was cool and very fun. nothing but a big kid. bless him. :heart:
 
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