Michael Jackson: a trip to the moon on gossamer wings
Michael Jackson was a great dancer. And a very American one, heavily influenced by John Travolta and touted as such by Fred Astaire, an even greater American dancer.
It was this part of his talent that made me mourn this sad man’s passing: The strength of my response to the news of his death surprised me, I must admit.
And so I’ve been reading the coverage in The Oregonian and looking for mention of the man’s incredible ability to move. Marty Hughley’s eloquent analysis told me much I did not know, as did that emerging dancer Peter Ames Carlin’s. But no nod to the way the man moved.
Then, to my delight, there was an account in this morning’s Oregonian of the French, frequently a class act, celebrating Jackson by moonwalking around the cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris: I hope someone filmed it.
Just now, I turned online to the New York Times and read Alastair Macauley’s tribute to Jackson’s dancing talent — who knew that the British-born critic with his eagle eye for the subtleties of classical dance from Petipa to Cunningham would go to the trouble to watch a whole slew of YouTube snippets of Jackson dancing and write so perceptively about him?
For my part, I will always associate Jackson with dancing, and not just his: when my daughter was in the second grade at Glencoe Elementary School, her teacher drilled the kids in aerobic dance for exercise and they put on a fabulous performance to Beat It for the parents.
Outstanding was a boy who was quite horizontally challenged, but, man, could he move to Jackson’s beat. Nearly as well as Jackson.
– Martha Ullman West
June 27th, 2009 at 7:29 pm
If you missed it, there’s a fascinating and worthwhile NPR interview with choreographer, Jeffrey Daniel (credited with teaching the moonwalk to Michael Jackson) available online at: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=105986636
April 2nd, 2010 at 12:15 pm
For me, Michael Jackson was one of the premiere performers of all time. His work communicated towards heart and soul. He had his problems with the media, but people were too quick to judge with so little perception of this sensitive soul and consummate entertainer. I wish we could have him back. He’ll be missed. I just wonder how his London tour would have been received, if he had lived.
June 5th, 2010 at 10:14 am
He was a great man, a great dancer and entertainer…he was an ICON. He was also what sick, scared white men (not all white men, just the cowards with the power) feared about black men, or any men other than white for that matter: he was the greatest human being ever to be known, loved, respected and recognized the world over: this gave Michael Jackson a power unrealized by any other human in the history of the world (powerful, evil white men ‘hates’ that fact). There will never be another Michael of any race, creek, color or nationality. Thanks to the millions and millions of beautiful white folks and hundreds of millions of fans of every race, creed, color, Nationality and religion the world over, Michael Jackson will live forever.
August 1st, 2010 at 2:18 pm
What a pity such greatness had to end so tragically. Jacko’s death was actually caused by all the pain he had to tolerate with all the child molestation charges made against him. He won in the the courts, nonetheless his health spiralled out of control. So can you say his death was a single doctor’s fault, or perhaps the zeal with which this modern world judges before trial? This is no more the case than with the rich and/or the famous.