Michael Jackson's Teacher "Pop N Taco" dances to Billie Jean 30 Years later in rare dance video

[tmilly]

Michael Jackson's Teacher "Pop N Taco" dances to Billie Jean 30 Years later in rare dance video

I had a pretty crazy/unique MJ-related experience this past week that I would like to share.

My friend Kento Mori reached out to me and said that after years of trying, he finally managed to get in contact with Bruno Falcon aka "Pop N Taco", Michael Jackson's old dance teacher/consultant who taught MJ many of the dance techniques that Michael studied and used in his performances.

Kento Mori, who is a very successful professional dancer in both Japan and in the US (he is also one of Chris Brown's principal dancers), has revolved his entire dance style around Michael Jackson. He auditioned and made it into the "This Is It" tour, but was double booked because he signed with Madonna the week prior, who later asked him to perform as MJ as part of her tour. Kento choreographed and played Michael in a huge tribute show in 2011 in Japan, which filled 55,000 seats per night and had guest appearances from MJ's choreographer Travis Payne as well as several members of the Jackson 5. Many of Michael's family members, including his mom and nephews, traveled to Japan to watch the show. If Kento isn't Michael's biggest fan, I honestly don't know who is.

Over the course of the past week, I have been driving with Kento to Long Beach, CA where Pop N Taco resides and lives a very modest life completely out of the spotlight. We had the honor of privately training with him in his garage, as well as filming portions of these sessions. One thing that really stood out is how Taco's personality so closely resembled Michael's; we were totally blown away by it! He is super quiet and humble despite having reached the highest levels of what a dancer can reach. It is hard for me to think of anyone I have met who is as genuinely a nice person as Taco.

After a few days of doing this, Taco really warmed up to Kento and I, and agreed to work on a dance video with us. Since it has been around 15 years since Taco retired from his dance career and has not been filmed in that long, we jumped at the opportunity to put together a dance video out of respect for this dance legend who had a big influence on Michael's dancing and inspired millions of people in doing so.

Here is what we came up with:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWwVYLjKRl4

 

[morinen]

Re: Michael Jackson's Teacher "Pop N Taco" dances to Billie Jean 30 Years later in rare dance video

Great work with the video.

But watching all these guys, like Soul Train and this, I can't help but notice what is similar among all these dancers MJ borrowed moves from, is that they show very little passion in their dance. They are very focused on making the dance look perfect and flawless, but they don't relay anything through the dance. Michael was never focused on making every move flawless (except maybe in Billie Jean on Motown 25), but he had a fierce passion that was driving his dancing, he had a force inside that was making its way out through his dance - it was a copletely another level of emotion and energy. Yes, a lot of his moves can be traced to this or that street dancer. But could any one of them dance like him? Absolutely not.

 

[barbee0715]

Re: Michael Jackson's Teacher "Pop N Taco" dances to Billie Jean 30 Years later in rare dance video

I read your comment before I watched the video and I absolutely agree with you-I'm a few years older than Michael and always thought of him as my child even though I started getting a pretty bad crush around the time of the Jackson variety shows.
And I remember sitting on the floor in front of the TV (in my little kid position) during Motown 25 and he started "Billie Jean" and he turned his head and absolutely GLARED into the camera. My heart jumped over and I was just scared and excited at once and I couldn't breathe. I've never seen that kind of passion and anger in a dance-and it came not only from his body, but his facial expressions-Maybe it was just because it was so unexpected, but I think that is what makes him so different than everyone else. He feels it and we feel it just like we feel it when we hear him sing.

 

[jamba]

Re: Michael Jackson's Teacher "Pop N Taco" dances to Billie Jean 30 Years later in rare dance video

I read your comment before I watched the video and I absolutely agree with you-I'm a few years older than Michael and always thought of him as my child even though I started getting a pretty bad crush around the time of the Jackson variety shows.
And I remember sitting on the floor in front of the TV (in my little kid position) during Motown 25 and he started "Billie Jean" and he turned his head and absolutely GLARED into the camera. My heart jumped over and I was just scared and excited at once and I couldn't breathe. I've never seen that kind of passion and anger in a dance-and it came not only from his body, but his facial expressions-Maybe it was just because it was so unexpected, but I think that is what makes him so different than everyone else. He feels it and we feel it just like we feel it when we hear him sing.

agree with the glaring--and the passion and the force behind his performance, and it's so understandable when Fred Astaire told him 'you're an angry dancer' (and Fred saw himself as that too). He was ferocious!

 

[Word Smith Sr]

Re: Michael Jackson's Teacher "Pop N Taco" dances to Billie Jean 30 Years later in rare dance video

I saw this video yesterday on facebook. I love it, they're so good !!!!! I had heard the name "Taco" and saw him in the making of Captain EO but i had no idea i was looking at him while watching performances and documentaries. It's nice to see him as a young dude in the video and then as an older dude. He danced his whole life.