Talk:Jeffrey Daniel
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The article claims, "It was on Soul Train whilst doing a routine dressed in black that Jeffrey and Geron 'Casper' Candidate and Derek 'Cooly' Jackson first performed the moonwalk on US television. Michael Jackson later worked with both Jeffrey and Casper and they taught him the moonwalk." I watched and remember that episode of Soul Train, which aired perhaps sometime in 1979? (I watched it in Africa, a few years after the fact.) That performance may well have been the first airing of 'the moonwalk' on US television (and any television, for that matter), but it was definitely not the first time 'the moonwalk' was caught on film! I have seen a short black-and-white clip probably from the tap dancing era (pre-1960s) of an African-American dancer making his backward exit from the stage by means of 'the moonwalk', which would be long before Don Campbell started locking in the late 1960's! The reason I make all references above to the subject dance move in quotes is because anyone who knows anything about West Coast Street Dance would confirm that the move has always been known as The Backslide. Mime is a technique commonly used by pop-lockers and body-poppers, and 'moonwalking' would refer to the mimist impression of walking in zero gravity conditions. Unconversant with the techniques and terminology of these dance styles, it was mainstream America who mislabeled the move Michael Jackson performed in his performance of 'Billy Jean' at the 'Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever' television special, and their mislabel has stuck through the years. While it should be noted that Derek 'Cooly' Jackson was also involved in teaching Michael Jackson the backslide and the basics of body-popping, IT CAN ONLY BE VIEWED AS A TRAGEDY THAT MICHAEL JACKSON HAS NEVER CORRECTED MAINSTREAM AMERICA'S MISGUIDED ASSERTION THAT HE INVENTED THE BACKSLIDE AND INSTEAD GIVEN CREDIT TO THOSE TO WHOM IT IS DUE, a practice that is unfortunately typical of so many celebrities that have arisen over the years.
UPDATE: It has pleased me to read that the gist of Wikipedia's article on 'The Moonwalk' agrees with my comments above!
[An East African.]
I think you can argue endlessly about who "invented" or developed a dance step. Every possible dance step is a refinement of a previous step. The fact that a step was popularized and is a signature move of Michael Jackson probably has more cultural relevance than the fact some tap dancer did a similar move decades before. And since Jackson does, in fact, credit Daniel with showing him the step, you can't do much more than that toward a definitive attribution of the "inventor" of the step. Raphaelaarchon 10:50, 10 April 2007 (UTC)
