Master the Moonwalk: Complete Beginner's Guide, Footwork Secrets, and the Untold True Story
By Alexander Ross
Pop lore often credits Michael Jackson with inventing the move out of thin air. Jackson himself repeatedly corrected that record. In his 1988 autobiography Moonwalk, he acknowledged that Black street dancers in Los Angeles taught him the technique. At the time, the street dance community called the movement the backslide dance move, an essential element of popping culture emerging across California during the late 1970s.
The historical lineage stretches back further than the 1970s West Coast scene. In 1932, jazz bandleader Cab Calloway incorporated sliding footwork into his live sets, calling his variation "The Buzz." Decades later, tap virtuoso Bill Bailey recorded the earliest surviving film footage of the modern movement. During the Bill Bailey original tap routine filmed at the Apollo Theater in 1955, Bailey tapped aggressively, broke into a sequence of lightning-fast steps, and casually glided backward into the stage wings to thunderous applause.
By 1979, soul group Shalamar featured dancer Jeffrey Daniel on the British music show Top of the Pops. Daniel performed the backslide while singing "A Night to Remember," stunning young viewers across Europe. Jackson studied Daniel, along with street dancers Derek "Cooley" Jaxson and Geron "Casper" Candidate. Jackson refined their street-honed isolation, added his signature fedora tilt and cropped glittering socks, and unleashed it at Michael Jackson Motown 25 during his performance of "Billie Jean." The performance rebranded the street subculture staple into an international pop landmark.
Alexander Ross has covered the video game industry for a decade, writing deep dives on game design, esports tournaments, VR developments, and gaming culture.
