Legendary dancer and Shalamar member Jeffrey Daniel has revealed how he introduced Michael Jackson to the moonwalk, one of the most iconic dance moves in music history.
In an interview on Channels TV on Thursday, Daniel, credited with pioneering the “backslide” move that evolved into Jackson’s moonwalk, explained that the King of Pop first saw him perform it in 1979 on the hit television show Soul Train while dancing with his group Eclipse.
“Well, I mean, it’s funny because now it’s in a totally new context. Michael saw me doing the backslide in ’79 on Soul Train,” Daniel said.
The following year, Jackson watched Daniel’s group perform at Disneyland, accompanied by his younger sister Janet Jackson. According to Daniel, it was then that Michael approached him for lessons.
“He brought little Janet Jackson and they stood in the wing and watched us dance. Then he asked me to teach him to dance,” Daniel recalled.
That meeting marked the beginning of a two-decade-long collaboration between the two artists. Daniel went on to work closely with Jackson on several landmark projects, including choreographing the videos for Beat It and Smooth Criminal, traveling with him to Brazil for the filming of They Don’t Really Care About Us, and contributing to Ghosts. He later served as A&R and creative consultant at Jackson’s record company, MJJ Music.
“I worked with Michael over a 20-year period, and the last job I had in America was at MJJ Music, his record company, as A&R and creative consultant,” Daniel noted.
In a surprising revelation, Daniel also disclosed that he and Jackson were cousins, a fact he only discovered in 2008.
“Because my father didn’t raise me, but in 2008, my father showed me my family tree, and I found out that I’m Michael’s cousin. So all the years we were working together, I never knew that we were related to the Jacksons,” he said.
“We now call each other cousin all the time. We speak — Jermaine Jackson, Janet, Randy, and the older sister, Rebe. We call each other cousins all the time. But all the time we were working, I never knew we were related,” Daniel added.
Michael Jackson, celebrated as the King of Pop, revolutionised global music and dance with his groundbreaking performances, choreography, and record-shattering albums, including Thriller, the best-selling album of all time.
