Debbie Allen Loved Jackson's 'This Is It' (highlights from an Interview Debbie Allen did on NPR)
ROBERTS: You know, you've worked with so many dancers, so many incredible bodies, such athletic and graceful talent. What was your impression of Michael Jackson's physicality? What kind of a dancer is he?
Ms. ALLEN: Michael brought a style that was so unique because of his sharpness, and it's something I point out to my dancers. I, you know, I started the Debbie Allen Dance Academy in Los Angeles and I train young people daily, all the time. We're always - we're rehearsing for something, a show or just for class or just - and I pointed to them how hard he would rehearse. He rehearsed over and over and over and over and over.
And when he performed, he was so sharp. He was electrifying. You wanted to see him do it again just to say, wow. Wow. In rehearsal, it would be amazing to see him do something twice, two or three times. You know, he didn't just do it once. He might do it two or three times. His dancing really redefined dance as we know it since the moment he did that moonwalk in that Motown special and the whole world, like, stood on its ears and on its toes. There are few dancers in the world that have done that. You know, there's been Baryshnikov and there's Gregory Hines, and Michael Jackson has a category all to himself.
ROBERTS: Did he ever ask you for choreography advice?
Ms. ALLEN: Yeah. I actually choreographed him, and I actually - he used to come to my house. I have a dance studio in my house. I used to train him. He wanted to learn new things. This was what was amazing. Michael would spin like a top, I mean, just (makes noise) so fast. But he wanted to learn how to turn like Baryshnikov. I said, Michael, you already turn - Baryshnikov can't do what you do.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Ms. ALLEN: He said, but I want to learn it, Debbie. I said, okay. So we worked on that. Then he wanted to learn about tap dancing. He really loved Savion Glover, and he really wanted to work with Savion Glover. And we were - we actually had spent time working on a movie idea for him and Savion. And so, he wanted to learn how to tap dance. So he actually would come to my house and we would work very privately. And I would sometimes be with kids or with his son while he was in the studio practicing with one of my master friends. Paul Kennedy, actually, was the main person, and then there was (unintelligible). So I have worked with him. I was a supervising choreographer on a big special he was going to do, and I've known him over the years. Our friendship has always been based on dance, and I've known him since he was probably about 14 years old. That's how long I knew Michael.
You have this inside perspective, knowing him for so long. Do you think people who see this movie and got to kind of lift the curtain on the rehearsal process, do you think we learn something about what a consummate performer he was when it came to his art?
Ms. ALLEN: You do, because you will go to many concerts, you will see various artists, but you won't see the kind of detail and the kind of execution that you would see in - even in the preparation for ?This is It.? Michael liked to rehearse. He liked to work. And he was there for everything. You would see him in the auditions. He didn't leave that up to somebody else.
He would be in the auditions when you're auditioning to cast people to be next to him. He was there. If you're shooting whatever the footage is of a little girl in the rainforest, he was there looking to see how was it shot. He was there. So I think it gives another sense of - another regard for him and respect for the genius of who Michael Jackson really is and who he's always been to us and to see it, as you so gracefully say, the curtain lifted behind the scenes.
That's why I'm so happy about the movie. I actually sent Kenny Ortega a text message as soon as I got out the theater to thank him and Travis for, you know, making it possible for all of us to experience this. It's an experience. It's an experience, this movie. And you get a sense of not just the genius, but how hard he worked in and how involved he was in that every aspect of what he was going to do.
