Dance Trivia: Tip of the Day
Here’s a bit of dance trivia for you: the moonwalk was originated by tap dancers.
I would venture a guess that most people are not aware of the connection between the moonwalk and America’s only indigenous dance form-tap dance. It’s true, though. While Michael Jackson was the one who made the moonwalk memorable for today’s generation, scads of tap dancers had already been doing the move for years originating with the popularity of a movement in the dance form called “legomania”. Don’t believe me? Well, luckily this guy made a compilation of all these tappers doing some version of what we would eventually call “The Moonwalk”.
The fact is, Michael Jackson referenced dance forms and choreographers in everything he did.
From Bob Fosse…
…and Fred Astraire…
…to Jerome Robbins…
…Jackson was constantly nodding to the people before him while breaking ground ahead of him. I think this is the reason why all dancers have a special love for him. He was a dancer to be loved and a lover of dance himself.
But I digress…more about the influence of tap dance to come. In the meantime, see why the tap community is so fired up right now.
Great post! In a post on my own blog a while back I mentioned MJ’s significance in dance/pop culture. I unfortunately neglected his ties to the past!! You have found some wonderful videos to illustrate this. I’m going to add a link to your post as an update. Well done and thank you!