"Smooth Criminal"
The anti-gravity lean
A rigid ~45° forward lean — achieved with cables in the Moonwalker film, and live with patented shoes that locked onto a peg rising from the stage.
The body as instrument
The Dancer
He fused street funk — popping, locking, the backslide — with the Hollywood elegance of Astaire and Kelly and the raw drive of James Brown, then made dance a headline act in its own right. He dedicated his 1988 autobiography Moonwalk to Fred Astaire.
0Moonwalk on TVMotown 25 (taped Mar 25)
0Motown 25 viewers~⅓ of US TV households
0Kids in the Super Bowl finaleXXVII halftime, 1993
Two seconds that changed everything
The Moonwalk
The move popularly called the moonwalk is, in dance terms, a backslide — the illusion of gliding backward while the body suggests walking forward. Jackson debuted it on national TV performing "Billie Jean" at the Motown 25 taping (March 25, 1983; aired May 16). The backslide itself lasted about two seconds — and became one of the most famous moments in pop history.
He did not invent it, and never claimed to. The backslide has clear ancestors (Cab Calloway, tap dancer Bill Bailey, the mime Marcel Marceau, and 1970s funk/street dancers). Jackson credited street dancers — Jeffrey Daniel of Shalamar, Cooley Jaxson, and Geron "Caszper" Canidate — though the accounts of who taught him conflict. What's certain: he named it, perfected it, and made it global.
“You're a hell of a mover. Man, you really put them on their asses last night.”
Fred Astaire — phoning Jackson the day after Motown 25 (from Moonwalk)
The vocabulary
Signature moves
Punctuation
The toe stand
Rising onto the very tips of his toes in ordinary loafers, holding the pose — a recurring accent in "Billie Jean."
Motion → freeze
The spin & freeze
A rapid multi-rotation pirouette snapping to a dead-stop silhouette — his signature rhythmic device.
Glide
Kicks & side-glides
Sharp leg-snaps and lateral gliding illusions in the same frictionless family as the backslide.
Yes, he patented a dance move
The live anti-gravity lean used special shoes with a heel slot that engaged a peg in the stage. Jackson and his costumers Michael Bush and Dennis Tompkins hold U.S. Patent 5,255,452 — "Method and means for creating anti-gravity illusion" (filed June 29, 1992; granted Oct 26, 1993).
Where it came from
Influences
Jackson was a deliberate student of dance history. His most-cited influences: Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly (the Hollywood-musical lineage), James Brown (his single greatest performing inspiration), Jackie Wilson and Sammy Davis Jr., the angular jazz of Bob Fosse, the acrobatic precision of the Nicholas Brothers, and the pantomime of Marcel Marceau.
Who built the routines
Choreographers
Michael Peters choreographed (and danced in) "Beat It" and "Thriller." Vincent Paterson co-choreographed "Smooth Criminal," "The Way You Make Me Feel," and "Black or White," and the Bad tour. Jeffrey Daniel, Travis Payne (This Is It), and LaVelle Smith Jr. shaped his tours and later work.
On the biggest stages
Iconic dance performances
Motown 25 (1983) — the moonwalk's televised debut. "Beat It" & "Thriller" (1983) — Michael Peters' choreography turned music videos into dance narratives. "Smooth Criminal" (1988) — the anti-gravity lean. Super Bowl XXVII (Jan 31, 1993) — a "Jam"/"Billie Jean"/"Black or White" medley that transformed the halftime show into a pop spectacle (the first Super Bowl whose ratings rose at halftime). And the posthumously released This Is It (2009) rehearsals, documenting his late-career craft with Travis Payne and Kenny Ortega.
Costume as instrument
Why the white socks
His visual trademarks were functional. The single glove drew the eye to his hand isolations; the black fedora was a prop to tilt, snatch and throw (echoing Fosse and Astaire). And the high-water trousers with bright white socks and black loafers deliberately exposed the ankles so the footwork — the spins, toe-stands, and slides — read clearly from the back of a stadium.
The lineage continues
Everyone who came after
Usher, Justin Timberlake, Beyoncé, Britney Spears, Justin Bieber, Pharrell, and Chris Brown — who said, "Michael Jackson is the reason why I do music and why I am an entertainer" — all cite him as foundational. The moonwalk became shorthand for Jackson himself.