Marlon Jackson grew up sharing a stage with his little brother Michael. He was a member of the Jackson 5 and later the Jacksons, so he watched Michael’s talent grow from up close. He’s shared plenty of stories about growing up with Michael over the years. This one starts with somebody a lot younger than either of them.
This year, Marlon sat down with People magazine and told a story about the most famous dance step in the world. The moonwalk.
Most of us think we know where it came from. Michael slid backward across the stage, and it looked like he was floating. Plenty of fans figure a top choreographer must have handed it to him. Marlon says the very first person who showed it to Michael wasn’t a pro dancer or a TV star.
It was a kid.
“My nephew, not on my family’s side, on my wife’s side, was the first person that showed him the moonwalk,” Marlon said, in quotes shared by the radio station 107.7 The Bounce.
And he wasn’t some teenager with years of dance lessons behind him.
“He was eight years old,” Marlon said.
So the boy was Marlon’s nephew by marriage, from his wife’s side of the family. His name hasn’t been shared, and honestly the story doesn’t need it. What’s fun is how small the start was. The boy didn’t even call it the moonwalk.
“He told me that they call it the backwards slide,” Marlon said. “Then Jeffrey Daniel taught Michael how to do the backwards slide, and Michael renamed it the moonwalk.”
Jeffrey Daniel was a dancer and singer with the group Shalamar. Michael had help from several dancers as he polished the step and made it his own. But in his brother’s telling, the very first lesson came from an 8-year-old who had his own name for it.
Then came the night everybody remembers.
On May 16, 1983, NBC aired “Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever,” a big TV special celebrating the Motown record label. Michael sang “Billie Jean.” Partway through the song, he glided backward across the stage. Watch for that moment in this clip, because it’s the same backwards slide a little boy once showed him, now on national TV with Michael’s new name for it.
Michael Jackson’s first moonwalk on TV, during “Billie Jean” at “Motown 25”
You might wonder if his family was surprised that night. They weren’t. Marlon said they knew what Michael had planned before he ever stepped out there.
“We knew that he was gonna do [that move],” Marlon said.
Marlon’s story links a kid on his wife’s side of the family doing the backwards slide to his brother doing it on NBC. Only somebody inside the family could tell it that way.
So the next time you watch that clip, keep that 8-year-old in mind. We may never know his name, but Marlon made sure he got his credit.