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Michael’s signature dance moves

Hiker said:
wow!! It is a signature pose! and you can clearly see the difference between Michael's lines and perfection of that pose vs the other person. Michael's everything is perfectly aligned.
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It's amazing, isn't it? No comparison!
 
I think this performance of ‘we’re almost there’ is the best example of the move set that Michael developed by the mid to late seventies. the quick turns, the hopping, his take on the Charleston waltz.. it’s all uniquely his. just Michael alone on that tiny platform within the stage. that’s all that was needed 💜
 
zinniabooklover said:
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As for Michael's hand and finger gestures, here are just a few. His hands and arms are very expressive.
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@turtleneck_sweater

Massive urgent need to revisit these gifs!
 
zinniabooklover said:
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And getting back to Michael. I love this gif. I love the joyous freedom and fluidity of his movements here but mostly I love the particular way he uses his arms and hands. I'm a bit obsessed - oh, all right, I'm TOTALLY obsessed with his hands, arms and fingers. The way he uses them. Look at the beautiful way he uses his fingers here. So interesting, so clever, so intricate. The patterns he makes. The lines he's tracing through the air.
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@turtleneck_sweater

And again. You've got me started, lol.
 
zinniabooklover said:
@turtleneck_sweater

And again. You've got me started, lol.
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Yes! It's so interesting! I need to sit and focus one day and maybe it'll lead me somewhere in terms of research! The biggest question we need to ask ourselves is: are the movements spontaneous or carefully planned? On one hand, it's Michael, so it seems like everything is part of the perfectionist's plan. On the other hand, he said "the music had compelled him to do it", so it might be a natural reaction to what he was hearing...
By the way, sometimes I don't get notifications despite being tagged. I can only see that after I visit the threads in "what's new". Why is that so?
 
turtleneck_sweater said:
Yes! It's so interesting! I need to sit and focus one day and maybe it'll lead me somewhere in terms of research!
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Keeping my fingers crossed. That would be an awesome research path to go down.

So many of the photos I've posted - even some Manhood ones - I'm going, 'look at his hands / his right hand / the shape of his fingers', or whatever. The way he uses his arms, hands, fingers, his gestures, his body shapes - just endless fascination. There's an interview with Howard Bloom where he talks briefly about how Michael uses his hands. People don't normally talk about this stuff. I don't understand that.

I remember reading a trash piece in The Guardian years ago where the journalist slagged off Michael's live performances as consisting of nothing more than him walking up and down (hello? it's a big-ass stadium!) and pointing. I just thought

1 - have you any idea how hard it would be to do that and make it look good?
2 - it's one of the BEST things he does, imo. The pointing! OMG!!!!!!!!

turtleneck_sweater said:
The biggest question we need to ask ourselves is: are the movements spontaneous or carefully planned? On one hand, it's Michael, so it seems like everything is part of the perfectionist's plan. On the other hand, he said "the music had compelled him to do it", so it might be a natural reaction to what he was hearing...
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We've had a few mini-conversations about this on the board. I kind of go back and forth on this. I know dancers rehearse things to the point of exhaustion and then beyond bc it's one way to ensure that everything you do looks totally spontaneous. Otoh, we have Michael's thoughts on this and it's not hard to imagine, as a pop / soul / rock singer he would sometimes be moved by the music, the energy of the crowd, the adrenaline in that moment. No-one ever bothered to interview him properly, imo (my top, top fantasy is a series of televised, in-depth, high quality interviews about all aspects of his creativity. Sigh!). I guess we'll never know for sure.

If I had to commit to one or the other I'd say it's more likely to be endless rehearsal that dictates almost all of the movements he does. But I don't know what it's like to have the brain of a creative genius so I can only make a feeble guess. :ROFLMAO:

turtleneck_sweater said:
By the way, sometimes I don't get notifications despite being tagged. I can only see that after I visit the threads in "what's new". Why is that so?
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I don't know!
 
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turtleneck_sweater said:
Yes! It's so interesting! I need to sit and focus one day and maybe it'll lead me somewhere in terms of research! The biggest question we need to ask ourselves is: are the movements spontaneous or carefully planned? On one hand, it's Michael, so it seems like everything is part of the perfectionist's plan. On the other hand, he said "the music had compelled him to do it", so it might be a natural reaction to what he was hearing...
By the way, sometimes I don't get notifications despite being tagged. I can only see that after I visit the threads in "what's new". Why is that so?
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Just tagged you over on Fave Costumes. Was gonna wait and see if it worked but I've wimped out.

Anyway, posted the photo for his jacket but mostly was getting over-excited about his right hand. As you do! :D
 
zinniabooklover said:
Keeping my fingers crossed. That would be an awesome research path to go down.

So many of the photos I've posted - even some Manhood ones - I'm going, 'look at his hands / his right hand / the shape of his fingers', or whatever. The way he uses his arms, hands, fingers, his gestures, his body shapes - just endless fascination. There's an interview with Howard Bloom where he talks briefly about how Michael uses his hands. People don't normally talk about this stuff. I don't understand that.

I remember reading a trash piece in The Guardian years ago where the journalist slagged off Michael's live performances as consisting of nothing more than him walking up and down (hello? it's a big-ass stadium!) and pointing. I just thought

1 - have you any idea how hard it would be to do that and make it look good?
2 - it's one of the BEST thing he does, imo. The pointing! OMG!!!!!!!!


We've had a few mini-conversations about this on the board. I kind of go back and forth on this. I know dancers rehearse things to the point of exhaustion and then beyond bc it's one way to ensure that everything you do looks totally spontaneous. Otoh, we have Michael's thoughts on this and it's not hard to imagine, as a pop / soul / rock singer he would sometimes be moved by the music, the energy of the crowd, the adrenaline in that moment. No-one ever bothered to interview him properly, imo (my top, top fantasy is a series of televised, in-depth, high quality interviews about all aspects of his creativity. Sigh!). I guess we'll never know for sure.

If I had to commit to one or the other I'd say it's more likely to be endless rehearsal that dictates almost all of the movements he does. But I don't know what it's like to have the brain of a creative genius so I can only make a feeble guess. :ROFLMAO:


I don't know!
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I understand the way you focus on those movements. Gesture studies is pretty new, it'll take time until people start viewing them as as important as speech in communication and expression. He is a skilful, careful performer. Performance and real-life spontaneous gesture are like sang words and spoken words, they have their differences. MJ sometimes changes his gesture on stage but usually the chosen movements are very well-rehearsed. I love the comment you made on the brain of a creative genius, haha. Second that. And his beautiful hands make beautiful movements. I love the sharpness of them. He definitely wanted onlookers to appreciate his hand movements, hence the tape (I used to think the tape and single glove were used to mask the beginning of vitiligo but I believe someone who knew him said that he wanted his fingers to be seen from afar).
 
What about the train move he did (Bad video between 1:36-1:41 below), which I believed morphed from a more rudimental version of skip-hopping and neck-snapping he did during the early years up until the Triumph era (Young MJ Dance Moves Compilation at 1:46-1:48 and 1:58-2:00 )?

He also had some really subtle moves as part of more extensive routines that he didn't always employ.

Like the Dancing Machine routine, where he would sometimes spin back into the robot (The Jacksons Variety Show at 2:49 below) choreography with his brothers?

He would often use the spin as a go-between and entry point.



 
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turtleneck_sweater said:
Someone in my seminar group is researching dancers' gesture.
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oh, stop it! I'm falling over with excitement, here! You could get at least six PhD's out of that.

turtleneck_sweater said:
I need to find out who and maybe I can quote/cite them when they're finished! Fingers crossed they included MJ.
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That would be so cool.

turtleneck_sweater said:
The biggest question we need to ask ourselves is: are the movements spontaneous or carefully planned?
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My further thoughts on this are that all of it was rehearsed to the max. Bc that's what dancers do. However, if I had to guess I'd say he most likely had a repertoire of certain moves, steps, gestures - all of them fiercely rehearsed - from which he would make a selection as to which one to use at a particular moment, that is what would be dictated by the music, how he was feeling the groove etc. I don't watch a huge amount of Michael's live performances and nothing at all after BWT 1987 - apart from Jam at Bremen - so I can't compare and contrast. But if there are small variations during a particular dance routine, I think that's what is happening. He's allowing a certain move or gesture to suggest itself and he decides to go for it. But he still spent hundreds of hours rehearsing that thing bc he needs to know it will definitely work and do what he wants it to do.

Pure guesswork, obvs.
 
Tbh, Thriller is his Signature dance in a lotta ways, to a lotta people. Also, it's like, the most easily learned choreography in his repertoire. Beat It is basically right next to it. It's interesting how he knew those clips would be huge so he wanted them each to just be perfectly iconic, to pioneer the music video genre as hard as it has.

Billie Jean is His signature dance, but those two are the signature dances he made for the World you could say.
 
Interview with Courtney Miller who danced with Michael in RTT, Dangerous at the AMA's and also toured with Michael during HWT. No footage or photos, the interview is just Courtney talking. I really enjoyed it.

@MacMandy90 - he doesn't really say much about RTT so I don't think you'll learn anything new. He's more talking in general terms about his experiences.

What Was It Like To Dance With Michael Jackson - Courtney Miller

Can't seem to get it to share from YT.

16m 54s

https://twitter.com/x/status/1631870144501911553
 
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zinniabooklover said:
Interview with Courtney Miller who danced with Michael in RTT, Dangerous at the AMA's and also toured with Michael during HWT. No footage or photos, the interview is just Courtney talking. I really enjoyed it.

@Hiker @staywild23

@MacMandy90 - he doesn't really say much about RTT so I don't think you'll learn anything new. He's more talking in general terms about his experiences.

What Was It Like To Dance With Michael Jackson - Courtney Miller

Can't seem to get it to share from YT.

16m 54s

https://twitter.com/x/status/1631870144501911553
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This was absolutely lovely though, just love it.
 
michael’s robot during ‘dancing machine’, was the seventies equivalent to the moonwalk during ‘billie jean’. I’m not too fond of the song, but the performances are a must see. the sequence evolved over the years, but my favourite will always be the performance on the Mike Douglas show. Michael was controlled and stiff - just like a real robot, yet he was intricate and fluid at the same time. it was like he was on magnets. I believe that aside from the James brown impressions, and group choreography with his brothers, this was the first time that mainstream audiences were dazzled by his dancing - which would later become the focal point of his act.
 
Love this quote from Slash:

"I would just get up and do my thing, but every so often i would look up and be dazzled by how naturally and fluidly he worked. He could have 80 people onstage all doing the same dance move but he was the only guy who had that natural flow that nobody could match" ~ Slash
 
Slightly off-topic, I suppose, but it kind of fits in here. Dancers from the video for Remember The Time talk about working with Michael.

2m 20s

 
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