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Debbie Allen speaks about Michael Jackson on CNN (Video)

Lawd jesus, I really did'nt need to be crying right now, but as I saw the tears start rolling from Debbie's eyes, I just started crying too.

Thanks for sharing this.
 
Oh Michael .. I miss you so much :(

Debbie is a decent lady .. I like they way she said "Michael loved people" .. How true !
 
Now THIS is how questions about Michael should be handled! I appreciated Debbie's kind words and absolutely loved that she stood her ground and wouldn't let that interviewer steer the conversation into a more negative tone (which IMO is exactly what she was trying to do by inquiring about yes-men in his life). She is a class act and am very thankful that she shared her good memories with us.
 
Guys who is debbie allen? Sorry if may a dumb question lol but i dont remember who she is
 
8701girl said:
Guys who is debbie allen? Sorry if may a dumb question lol but i dont remember who she is
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Debbie Allens resume and credentials in the Entertainemnt industry are qute empressive
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debbie_Allen

Awards and honors
Allen was appointed by President George W. Bush in 2001 as a member of the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities.

For her contributions to the television industry, Debbie Allen was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Allen was presented with the George and Ira Gershwin Award for Lifetime Musical Achievement, at the 1992 UCLA Spring Sing

Three-time Emmy Award winner for Choreography for the series Fame and The Motown 25th Anniversary Special.

10 Image Awards as a director, actress, choreographer and producer for Fame, A Different World, Motown 25, The Academy Awards, The Debbie Allen Special and Amistad film.

But many MJ Fans are probably more familair with her from this

Michael Jackson - NAACP Image Awards 1994 -
MJ gives Speech and presents Debbie Allen with Image award
She is the one in the Yellow dress at the beginning and at the end

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDqltdEzD_M

Debby Allen Dance Academy
She also had her students pay tribute to Michael at Graumans hand and foot print ceremony
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zTFdwudAE8
 
I feel very emotional today, and this just got me. Seeing footage of that day being replayed and her tears, it was like June 25th all over again...:cry:
 
Oh yeh i remember her now and it was nice of her to say wonderful things bout mj
 
Petrarose said:
Guys what did she say, I cannot get audio. Thanks.
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Debbie: Michael Jackson is a phenomenon. I say is--he will always be. Never "was," he will always "be." And, um, our relationship was totally based on dance. He, um, came here many many many nights. Many days. Right there in my dance studio. Trained, new techniques, he wanted to learn how to tap-dance. He actually had an idea of doing a production with Savion Glover, cuz he really admired him. He admired Fred [Astaire] too. What is so great about Michael is he never ever settled for what his ability was at the moment. It always had to go further. He trained and practised everything that he already knew every day. Just a perfectionist! And so smart. Soft-spoken, but a *makes fist* TIGAHHHHH!!!!

Reporter Chick: So is that something that is missing in a lot of artists of today?

Debbie: I think what's missing today is we don't have enough of that development. When I think about the record business and I think about the music business and how young people just put a video up on YouTube and they can jump out there--but who is there developing them? Michael appreciated people that were real around him. I mean, he had a lot of people around him, but I think he was attracted to me because I was always very real with him.

Reporter Chick: Do you think there were too many people in his life who were always willing to say "yes" all the time, and not be real like you were able to be with him?

Debbie: Michael loved people, and he loved young people. I took a lot of people up to Neverland, a lot of kids, and the first place we went was his room, to see everything in there that was great. -sigh- But Michael had a lot of hurt in his life, a lot of hurt...

[News Anchor: CNN now confirmed from the LA coroner that Michael Jackson is dead].

Reporter Chick: What was the news like then for you, to hear that he had died?

Debbie: I was devastated. I called, uh, I remember calling Berry Gordy's office to confirm this. Nobody, like if you weren't right there in the middle of his rehearsal, you might not know. And I remember calling Diana Ross, and, ugh! It just was like, something we couldn't believe was true. And it was so painful, and it was so hurtful... we were rehearsing that day. We were rehearsing for a spring recital and I had to... I couldn't hide it from the kids because Twitter and everything is out there, so I had to tell them. And, oh my god,
all these hundreds of kids just weeping and crying, and then we said, "okay, pull it together! We are dancing for Michael now!" And that helped us, you know, get through the hurt.

And of course I immediately thought about his mother. Because his mother Katherine has always been soo wonderful and has always been there for him. I knew this was going to be really hard, and it was just hard for everyone...

-End of video-
 
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Snape.... his name is Savion Glover, world famous Afro-American tap dancer. And Bill Cosby tv wife, Phylicia Rashad ie Debbie Allen sister.
 
max000 said:
Snape.... his name is Savion Glover, world famous Afro-American tap dancer. And Bill Cosby tv wife, Phylicia Rashad ie Debbie Allen sister.
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Thanks I'll edit the post and put that in there. I don't know s--t about tap dancers, evidently, and I couldn't make out the name.
 
@ Severus Snape : Big thanks to you for typing it all down!
The CNN page isn't working and the youtube footage is blocked in my country, but thanks to T/S & virginia_woolf!

Soft-spoken, but a *makes fist* TIGAHHHHH!!!!
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OK, now I'll be using this quote right here.
I'm sure Mike would love it too.
 
Very nice what she had to say about Michael and so true. That is what people need to hear.
 
I love how she says "is". I do that too, I always say "he IS the best ever" "he IS a great singer" and so on. because when it becomes "was" it's like there might be someone now who "is", and there is no one "as is" as Michael, not now not ever.
 
Snape as always thanks for that summary. Debbie certainly shows a more indepth look at Michael as an artist. I remember she said once that Michael was always knocking on her door asking her to help him spin better, and she kept telling him he was better than than male Russian guy. I can't remember the dancer's name now. She certainly likes to show how much Michal was involved in perfecting his art!!!! I wish today's artists will put more time and creativity into their videos rather than having an orgy of half naked women twisting and turning around. Michael's art will be surely missed.
 
^^ Oh, no one had better spins than Michael!

BTW, I'd love to see a serious, scholarly analysis of his dancing. How is he rated in the world of dance and so on.

I know Mikhail Baryshnikov said this about him:

"I don't know who you could really put next to him," said ballet star Mikhail Baryshnikov, reached yesterday in Madrid. "To imitate somebody like Michael Jackson is impossible. Why bother? You just relax and admire."

and

What Baryshnikov remembers most about Jackson, he said, was "not even his turns or his grabbing his crotch. Just his simple, bouncy walk across the stage, that was what was most beautiful and arresting, swinging his hips, kicking his heel forward. That's to me what he is: that superior confidence in his body as a dancer. You wanted to say, 'Wow, this guy, what a cat; he can really move in his own way.' "


Michael Flatley admired him a lot too.
 
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I love Debbie Allen. She is an actress, dancer, choreographer, director, author. She knew Michael from way back, even during the Studio 54 disco days in the late 1970's.

I knew they knew each other and respected each other alot; but I was shocked when, in a recent interview with Wendy Williams, Debbie Allen, said she used to babysit Michael's oldest child Prince when he was a baby. And her nickname for Prince was "Cornbread" (lol).

Anyway, I loved what she said that Michael liked being around her because she was real with him. That is in contrast to these self-serving jerks that was going around running their mouths claiming Michael kicked them out of his life when they 'confronted' him....as if he only wanted 'yes people' in his life. Anyone who knows Debbie Allen can tell you, she is as real as they come. She will tell you what for and how it is. She doesn't mince words. Now if Michael maintained a close friendship with her over the years, then what was the problem with these others who claim Michael didn't like people in his life who basically didn't kiss his behind? Makes you think. Alot of those people claiming that is full of it.
 
Here's an article about Michael attending Mikhail Barysharinokov's Ballet Performace:
"As Michael Jackson's death was confirmed, my thoughts turned to the one and only time I ever saw the "King of Pop," right here in Orange County. He wasn't on stage solo or with the Jacksons (Five or otherwise), nor was he attending the opening of Captain EO at Disneyland. He was just out for a night of ballet in Costa Mesa.

Actually, his entrance into the Performing Arts Center's Segerstrom Hall threatened to overshadow legendary dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov's first appearance on an Orange County stage on Aug. 5, 1993. All the blue, dyed-black and assorted other hairs turned their heads to face Jackson, in his usual royal coat with shoulder epaulets, as he slowly moved to a seat near the orchestra, just to the left of the middle of the stage. He had a blonde on one side and a middle-aged man on the other. It was later revealed they were his dermatologist and nurse--and years later the same nurse would bear one of his children.

The commotion lasted for a few minutes before the lights dimmed and the performance began. Baryshnikov, the former Kirov Ballet principal dancer and ex-artistic director of American Ballet Theatre, owned the crowd's attention thereafter. Making his local debut as a modern dancer with the White Oak Dance Project, a collaborative venture Baryshnikov formed in 1990 with choreographer Mark Morris, the then-45-year-old with taped knees gamely danced two solos: Morris' "Three Preludes" (to music by Gershwin) and Twyla Tharp's "Pergolesi." He also joined other members of his troupe for Morris' "Mosaic and United" (music by Henry Cowell).

The audience ate it up. So did Jackson, or at least he appeared to be enjoying it from what I and everyone else could make out in the dark. He stood with the rest of us for the standing O. Then he was gone. I believe he returned to OCPAC again with Elizabeth Taylor for a function that raised money to battle AIDS/HIV, or at least that's my memory. I didn't snag a free press invite to that one, like I had for the White Oak."
 
enlightenu said:
I love Debbie Allen. She is an actress, dancer, choreographer, director, author. She knew Michael from way back, even during the Studio 54 disco days in the late 1970's. I knew they knew each other and respected each other alot; but I was shocked when, in a recent interview with Wendy Williams, Debbie Allen, said she used to babysit Michael's oldest child Prince when he was a baby. And her nickname for Prince was "Cornbread" (lol).Anyway, I loved what she said that Michael liked being around her because she was real with him. That is in contrast to these self-serving jerks that was going around running their mouths claiming Michael kicked them out of his life when they 'confronted' him....as if he only wanted 'yes people' in his life. Anyone who knows Debbie Allen can tell you, she is as real as they come. She will tell you what for and how it is. She doesn't mince words. Now if Michael maintained a close friendship with her over the years, then what was the problem with these others who claim Michael didn't like people in his life who basically didn't kiss his behind? Makes you think. Alot of those people claiming that is full of it.
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well said.although i tend to stay out of threads like these as daft as it sounds its upsetting reading about those who truely loved mj talking about him. reality hits u again
 
respect77 said:
^^

What Baryshnikov remembers most about Jackson, he said, was "not even his turns or his grabbing his crotch. Just his simple, bouncy walk across the stage, that was what was most beautiful and arresting, swinging his hips, kicking his heel forward. That's to me what he is: that superior confidence in his body as a dancer. You wanted to say, 'Wow, this guy, what a cat; he can really move in his own way.' "


Michael Flatley admired him a lot too.
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Thanks I am glad he spoke about his walk, because I love the way he walked even off stage. He had a way on placing one leg directly in front of the other, back straight--which was simply magical. A good example is when he walks away from that silly drummer in the TII rehearsals, and the video where he walks toward the kids at Neverland and then goes to his car.
 
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.
 
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