Moonwalk (dance)

The moonwalk, or backslide, is a popping dance move in which the performer glides backwards but their body actions suggest forward motion.

[3][4][5] Holman (2004) identified early evidence for the moonwalk in a statement made by Arthur Marshall, who was an African American composer of ragtime music.

"[6][7] Holman also states: "A dance that appeared around the turn of the century in Black minstrel shows called Stepping on the Puppy's Tail also had an amazing resemblance to the moon walk.

[11] In 1958, on the Pat Boone Show, Dick Van Dyke performed a similar variation of the moonwalk and camel walk in his comedy routine called "Mailing a Letter on a Windy Corner".

[13] In 1958, Mexican dancer-comedian Adalberto Martinez "Resortes" also performed the moonwalk in the film Colegio de Verano ("Summer School").

[15] It has also been acknowledged that the professional wrestlers Michael "Purely Sexy" Hayes, Terry Gordy, and Buddy Roberts started doing the moonwalk as their trademark ring entrance by 1979 when they formed a wrestling stable known as The Fabulous Freebirds.

The 1981 music video for "Crosseyed and Painless" by new wave band Talking Heads features authentic street dancers, including Stephen "Skeeter Rabbit" Nichols, doing the moonwalk.

Freeze's version was also shown in the first hip hop movie Wild Style and Malcolm McLaren film clip "Buffalo Gals".

[21] In the 1984 movie Streets of Fire, actor and performer Stoney Jackson executed a moonwalk as the leader of a fictional group, The Sorels, who lip-synced to the Dan Hartman song "I Can Dream About You".

Caszper, who claims to have a copy of the check and original contract, spent one week privately instructing Jackson how to perform the moonwalk.

[citation needed] Jackson first performed the dance in public on March 25, 1983, during the television special, Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever,[24] in front of a live audience at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium.

Music critic Ian Inglis later wrote that Jackson encapsulated a long tradition of African-American dance movements in that one performance.

[27] In 2019, street dancer Salif Gueye performed the moonwalk in David Guetta's music video for the song "Stay (Don't Go Away)".