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The Dancing Prowess of Michael Jackson...


Bumping this thread again. Celebrating Michael's birthday with another deep dive into thoughts / observations / analysis of his dancing brilliance. Also re-posting the Yoann Bomal video as being a wonderful, thoughtful, intelligent investigation into Michael's dancing, his influences and possible meanings for some of his work. This is a high quality piece of work from Yoann Bomal. I love it.

Happy Birthday, Michael.
 
quote-what-i-picked-up-on-michael-jackson-because-i-study-people-when-i-watch-them-the-way-wyclef-jean-114-8-0864.jpg


I wasn't familiar with this quote. Love it. ❤️
 
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Not sure this really belongs here but it's not a signature dance move so it can't really go into that thread. There is a strange dance move that Michael does when he's singing 'Tell Me I'm Not Dreamin' on the Victory tour. This photo looks like he's just going into or coming out of that move. He does it several times in the song. I haven't watched every scrap of footage of Michael performing live but I've never seen him do the move anywhere else. I find it so intriguing. The way he moves his body, the shape of it, how he uses his arms. It's definitely unusual but I love it so much. I do a lot of replay at that point, lol.
 
I love this quote so much:

"To reiterate, Jackson consumed music with the totality of his body; all of his producers over the years have recalled that they knew they had recorded a truly good song when it made him dance. More than any other performer of his time or since, Jackson composed for performance. (emphasis added)

(quote from a thesis by Sara Tenenbaum: "I Know I Am Someone: Michael Jackson, Thriller, and American Identity")
 
Posted this over on the Thriller annual parade thread but putting it over here as well - it's from 2011 and very short. It's about Kim Blank who was one of the dancers on the video. She had this to say:

"There are specificities in the quirky character of the moves and gestures, and in the rhythms that really make you concentrate...and then there was the need to be precise as a group...and more than precise...intense, in feeling and execution," says Ms. Blank. In other words, being undead is no easy walk in the graveyard, but that's no surprise.

www.nbclosangeles.com

Real “Thriller” Zombie Teaches the Moves

You can do the arms-up motion. But have you been taught by a real “Thriller” dancer?
www.nbclosangeles.com www.nbclosangeles.com

@filmandmusic just posted this comment somewhere else but it fits perfectly over here so re-posting - with permission 🙂

Anyway the thriller routine is so recognizable because it is fun and it looks actually creepy fitting the theme of the song. Many other choreos just have complicated steps to look cool.
What other artist has a choreo that everybody at least knows a few steps from? MJ has 2 with thriller and billie jean and billie jean he created all by himself. Michael has so many signature moves and so many people recognize them, it should be a term on its own like break dancing, swing or flamenco. MJ invented his own dancing style. Unique in movement, fashion and singing.

I love this comment. It seems blindingly obvious now f&m has pointed it out but I never thought of it like this before. Seriously! One of the Tik Tok Thriller parade vids I posted yesterday had a bunch of people sitting on the stairs and doing a version of Thriller. And it was freakin' brilliant, imo. They even gave it their own spin to personalise it but without being in any way disrespectful. f&m has given me a lot to think about here. Even when I see a piece praising the Thriller dance routine or praising Michael as a dancer I don't see these specific points being made. I mean, sure, there is often an unspoken agreement that *everyone* knows the Thriller dance routine. But it's all a bit vague and non-specific. f&m really nailed it.
 
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