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MJ the Dancer, through This Is It

Bo G

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This thread is for any observations about MJ's dancing, in and leading up to "This Is It." (I apologize if I've overlooked a general dance thread in Groove Theory; I looked and didn't see one. It's here instead of in the TII thread to be sure you "theoreticians" weighed in.

This Is It: The Drill Greenscreen Scene

I'm looking at this clip: (oops... don't think I'm not supposed to link to YouTube clips... deleted).

What IS it about the Drill greenscreen scene that we find so intriguing? There's something different here. MJ is now the mature dance legend. He gives off an airy, off-handed, gumchewing, commanding cockiness. There's that super-cool slinky black outfit -- no high-waters or white socks -- that show impossibly long legs. He throws off tiny yet impossibly sexy moves seemingly without thought. After an astounding forty-odd years of dancing, these moves are now simply part of him, utterly familiar and natural, as sinuosity is to a snake.

Beautiful young bodies surround MJ, earnestly and self-consciously forcing their bodies into what can never be anything but exaggerated approximation. They're fantastic... yet the contrast is striking.

So much of MJ's dance is in his head and shoulders. That little "walk-like-an-Egyptian" side-to-side head bob, a quick glance over one shoulder, a small jerk of a shoulder... it seems so unplanned, effortless, unthinking -- is it? The movements were accentuated by his hair loose around his shoulders -- something I don't recall ever seeing before while he danced.

In this scene, Michael Jackson is simply the epitome of cool. Then... that rhythmic stomping starts, making the drilling... thrilling.

It's actually a very angry song he's teaching, which we realize later when we see the CGI military and MJ begins singing "Skinhead..." with fierce, threatening gestures.

But before that overt anger explodes onstage, back in the green scene, all that's apparent is a brooding... a simmering beneath the surface. Sexy.

TDCAU

Same clip, 3:10-3:20. Always loved these leaned-over skipping steps (is there a name for this)? From James Brown, I think? I don't recall the hand-on-hip thing... is that new? Very cool.

3:35. Oh, have mercy, these shoulder jerks will be the death of me...

But now...uh-oh... that infamous and foreshadowing clip: "Hold for applause... hold for applause..." How many times did we replay this very first preview granted us? The preview fade-to-black left us with Michael's serious face, eyes closed. Commentators told us it it was an exhausted face, relieved to be done. But now Kenny's editing reveals the truth... the clip now lasts a moment longer, revealing that just before the blackness, MJ loses his stage scowl, and his face relaxes into a truly contented smile, eyes still closed, but now blissfully. Then the blackness... and what I believe is MJ murmuring "Yeah!"

I was so surprised. This was when I first cried in the theater, but I was also smiling along with MJ.

(Did Kenny do that deliberately, withhold that so-important smile from us, so that we'd be surprised in the movie... or was there a last-minute cut needed for proper length? Someone must ask him...)
 
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This Is It: Thriller/Threatened

[I\] I've deleted link to YouTube clip.[/I]

At 2:15: It's interesting that the MJ dressed in black and white, who emerges from the spider :bugeyed , apparently later in the rehearsals than the earlier red outfit, is now dancing differently -- funkier, more "street", unlike anywhere else in the movie, I think. More like his BOTDF dancing.

At 4:00. Tempo and mood changes were going to keep the dancing dramatic in TII. Here's where the very intense Thriller ends with ethereal organ music, MJ ecstatically embracing the ghosts raining down from above... then the pounding beats of Threatened and a few more glimpses of some very, very funky moves...
 
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Michael's dancing on This Is It, isn't even Michael dancing to his full ability as he's just rehearsing, but his dancing is amazing, his procission is back and it's the best live dancing I've seen from Michael since the 1980's. When Michael did his James Brown moves at the BET Awards in 2003, I know Michael was back to his best and would be better live than he was in the 1990's and 2001-02.
 
Simply put, he was born gifted. Billie Jean was my favorite of the dancing in this movie. I couldn't believe my eyes. And here I was thinking I might just see one new move from Michael, and he goes and does several new moves and new variations on previous ones. He was going to blow everyone away with these concerts.
 
Interview with Kenny Ortega on dance moves:
Michael talked about working on a move that was going to beat the Moonwalk into the ground. Did you ever see that move?

He was just starting to go to that place. Through his improvisational work, towards the last weeks of rehearsals you started seeing things coming out of Michael and you just went, 'What is that?'

Was there a particular move that he was tending towards?

He did this slow motion thing that he did in "Billie Jean" and in "Beat It," he started jumping up into the air. He looked like he was in slow motion, and when we were watching the film it looked like we had slowed him down. So he was playing with stuff. He was really working with it. The dancers who were less than half his age, I mean we're talking eighteen to twenty one year old dancers, twenty two year old dancers – Michael is fifty years old on that stage. These were eleven of five thousand seven hundred kids from all over the world that were the best dancers on the planet that we had picked to be on the show and they were brought to their knees watching Michael Jackson during the rehearsal.
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http://www.moviesonline.ca/movienews_17430.html

Guess this means we'll never know what the "new move" was. We need a clip here of the Beat It jump he's talking about.
 
A critic looks at MJ's dancing -- especially its subtlety and the work ethic behind it -- in TII and over his career in a little more depth:

EURweb

STEVEN IVORY: Truly, Michael Jackson was It
(November 3, 2009)

*You don't have to be a Michael Jackson fan to enjoy “This Is It,” the Sony documentary chronicling rehearsals for Jackson's infamous 2009 London shows that never happened.

To like this film, you don't need to have considered Jackson a misunderstood saint. You don't even have to dig his music.

You only have to appreciate witnessing someone already at the pinnacle of his game strive to be better. You have to possess a voyeur's curiosity as to how things work, and be utterly intrigued with the spooky notion of a person so focused on their artistry that they literally become it.

It's long been established that Michael Jackson was arguably one of the greatest entertainers of all time. "This Is It" illustrates just what a ridiculously magnificent talent the man was.

That illustration, despite what critics rave of the film, doesn't come from watching Jackson direct his rehearsals. Every serious musician, whether leading a small town church choir or putting a lounge trio through its paces, knows that rehearsal is about being clear on what you want from your players and respectfully requesting it.

While Jackson does that, in the film the point of his baddness is made simply by watching him move. Because, in observing him dance--especially in rehearsal and not full-on, when you get to observe the delicate mechanics of his brilliance--you realize that while you were busy living your life, Jackson was perfecting his wildly intuitive skills as a performer.

While you were going through your divorce, even as monstrous sales figures of “Thriller” solidified his place in pop music history, Jackson was spending most Sunday afternoons at home dancing before a mirror to exhaustion (this is the truth), trying to conjure something new. While you were busy flip-flopping about things, MJ was breaking the glass ceiling of his physical and funky limitations. His was a greatness borne out of a work ethic so dynamic and single-minded that the results seem abnormal. The idea that other aspects of his life were said to be such a mess make Jackson's onstage mastery all the more startling.

And at the same time, while watching "This Is It," you realize that no one becomes the mighty entertainer Jackson was by even the most diligent practice sessions. The man was the recipient of a gift. A gift he came to nurture relentlessly at the expense of nearly all else in his life.

If you haven't seen the documentary, here's some advice in viewing it: don't look away. Even the most informed Jackson devotee thinks they are mesmerized simply by the man's trademark gestures--the kicks, spins and moonwalk emulated by a multitude of Jackson impersonators--when they are actually seduced by Jackson's entrancing subtlety.

It's the instinctive physical attitude and sexy rhythm that occurs in the nanosecond when Jackson's body is on its way from one show-stopping move to the next; the stuff you'll miss if you blink (or as I did during “This Is It,” try to take notes). Indeed, it is his funky subtlety that turns impassioned, joyful, physical expression into sheer magic, and during “This Is It,” many of the film's best moments are Jackson's sublime subtlety--the kind of groovy mini moves that had Jackson fans taping his televised performances over the years so they could relish the man's swaggering mettle over and again.

The truth is that it was Jackson's ingenuity as an entertainer--his verve as a dancer, his stylistic vocals that peerlessly homogenized pop and soul interpretations--that ultimately made anyone care about what went on in his personal life.

Consider that Jackson's beyond-eccentric public persona would have overwhelmed the formidable careers of lesser lights long ago. His abstruse, seductive dazzle as one of the greatest showmen of modern time was and continues to be the primary reason for the world's fascination, worship and when required, sympathy for Michael Jackson. We only gaped in wonder at Jackson's complex private life, often ignoring and/or forgiving what we might find, in hope that something--anything--would help shed any measure of light on how a man can do what Jackson did on a stage with such soulful agility, fury and grace. “This Is It” is as close to an answer as we're going to get.

It is fitting that a film about the live pop music performance would be the last thing Jackson left us, in an era when the true art of singing, dancing and musicianship is all but folklore. “This Is It” is required viewing for anyone who (A) wants to be in show business or (B) is already in show business. Even if you make your living behind the scenes--as an entertainment executive, manager or attorney--see this film to remind you (or introduce you to the concept) that there is no substitute for absolute and unyielding talent. Posers, fakers and that hideous Auto Voice be damned.

By the way, after viewing “This Is It"--seeing and hearing all the truly skilled musicians, singers and dancers--the likes of Lil' Wayne should never again want to go onstage holding a guitar unless they can actually play the thing. Stop disrespecting the guitar by wearing it as a fashion accessory. Either dedicate yourself to the task of seriously learning to play or cease your molestation of the instrument.

In fact, that--truly getting ones shit together--is the main thing I took away from “This Is It.” Matters not what you do or pursue in this life. After witnessing Jackson's dizzying onscreen craftsmanship and indefatigable dedication to his thing, if you aren't left with the irrepressible desire to step up your own game, then you missed MJ's most dynamic move ever.

Steven Ivory's book, FOOL IN LOVE (Touchstone/Simon & Schuster) is available at Amazon.com (www.Amazon.com). Respond to him via STEVRIVORY@AOL.COM
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HE LOOKED SO DESCENT IN THIS CLIP. He looked so cool doing the move where they rise up on one foot with that hissing sound. It was so awesome. This movie just showed a very awesome and comical side of MJ altogether.
 
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