eVER!

I could never dispute that he was a great dancer.

For my money, it doesn't get much better than MJ.

Some of Michael Jackson's music brings back some memories for me. I never gave a rats ass about his dancing , or anybody else for that matter. Dancing does absolutely nothing for me.

I used to think that Michael Jackson 'invented' the moonwalk. Apparently not...... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRByZlHS6GE

I might have gotten this link from an earlier post at this site, or another site. I can't remember.

Irishgit listed some all time greats. I'd like to ad a couple: Donald O'Connor and Sammy Davis, Jr. (who was an IMMENSELY talented performer).

I haven't seen the recently departed's face in any breakfast food, but a neighbor of mine swore that she saw his profile in a sausage pizza last night. Imagine that!

I'm underwhelmed. While he had some talent, there is nothing of the brilliance of Astaire, Kelly, Bojangles Robinson or Cagney, let alone the genius of people like Nureyev or Nijinsky.

I know the guy just died and all, and some folks are seeing his image in their french toast the last few days, but lets try to keep a sense of proportion.

You have to put him in the top 2 of dancers that have ever lived.

I think the video submitted by Ridge answers a lot of questions. Jackson's got rhythym and can bust a move. But other than that, you can pretty much see him following the footmarks glued to the floor. The only thing that he does over and above that is that incredible spin. He was famous for the move and used it constantly. Over and above that, it's basically what anyone who would put in 16 weeks at an Arthur Murray Studio could pull off. Granted this was done, from the looks of it, for some TV variety show in the 70's when he was pretty young. He did get better at filling a huge concert stage with dance moves but it was really more about selling the song than the type of physical expression that the big time dancers are capable of.

On another note, I assume that is Michael singing on that track of standards that they dance to. If that's the case it shows a pretty incredible lack of range although again this was at a stage when he was a young entertainer just trying to spread his wings.

And now for something completely different. No doubt inspired by the man who inspired everyone, Fred Astaire, Michael shows some training and range. Sorry, but Fred is the only one who gets a *5* from me on this list. Michaels's stock just went up, though.

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