Smooth Criminal as done by Fred Astaire
May 28th 2008 23:00
You absolutely MUST see this...
Kids my own age grew up with Michael Jackson being the dancer to end all dancers; the moonwalk, the zombie dance, the crazy Smooth Criminal tilt - we sat around for ages trying to replicate his moves.
"Smooth Criminal" was a big favourite... combining a wonderfully rich world, with slick editing and impressive costumes. The image of Jackson in that white suit has been firmly ingrained in our minds as the ultimate Michael Jackson video.
The style of the video was further immortalized in the video game "Moonwalker", which, apparently, used Jackson's hat as a weapon. Our not to reason why.
Unknown to me, but making a lot of sense is the idea that Jackson was heavily influenced by Fred Astaire, the Hollywood dance legend.
A Fred Astaire fan put together this brilliant music video of Jackson's "Smooth Criminal", synced to Fred Astaire's "The Band Wagon", a 1953 movie that shows exactly where the style of "Smooth Criminal" came from. Absolutely incredible:
Astaire's dance partner in red is Cyd Charisse... those glorious legs, those arms, the effortless grace with which she moves. Women in these old movies captured an otherworldly sense of elegance that seemed to lift them above the realm of mere mortals.
Oh, those legs! Oh my, those legs!
This video is one of the best that I've ever seen, I think, edited to match the video, Fred Astaire seems perfectly at home with that syncopated Jackson beat, and you can see the moves that Jackson ripped off. Slick stuff, worth watching over and over...
(found on BoingBoing)
*this image is from this Swedish girl's blog
Kids my own age grew up with Michael Jackson being the dancer to end all dancers; the moonwalk, the zombie dance, the crazy Smooth Criminal tilt - we sat around for ages trying to replicate his moves.
"Smooth Criminal" was a big favourite... combining a wonderfully rich world, with slick editing and impressive costumes. The image of Jackson in that white suit has been firmly ingrained in our minds as the ultimate Michael Jackson video.
The style of the video was further immortalized in the video game "Moonwalker", which, apparently, used Jackson's hat as a weapon. Our not to reason why.
Unknown to me, but making a lot of sense is the idea that Jackson was heavily influenced by Fred Astaire, the Hollywood dance legend.
A Fred Astaire fan put together this brilliant music video of Jackson's "Smooth Criminal", synced to Fred Astaire's "The Band Wagon", a 1953 movie that shows exactly where the style of "Smooth Criminal" came from. Absolutely incredible:
Astaire's dance partner in red is Cyd Charisse... those glorious legs, those arms, the effortless grace with which she moves. Women in these old movies captured an otherworldly sense of elegance that seemed to lift them above the realm of mere mortals.
Oh, those legs! Oh my, those legs!
This video is one of the best that I've ever seen, I think, edited to match the video, Fred Astaire seems perfectly at home with that syncopated Jackson beat, and you can see the moves that Jackson ripped off. Slick stuff, worth watching over and over...
(found on BoingBoing)
*this image is from this Swedish girl's blog
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