Amazing..! The First Moonwalk - Bill Bailey - The Apollo Theatre - New York - 1955

This is one of the first ever moonwalks on film

Please see the movie here

This is one of the first ever moonwalks on film

Bill Bailey tapping to a rather quiet instrumental version of the Larks' hit "The World is Waiting for Sunrise" performed by the Paul Williams Quartet.

He's the brother of singer Pearl Bailey, but he has nothing to do with her signature song "Won't You Come Home Bill Bailey" which is a very old standard dating back to 1902. Bill's frequently credited with "inventing" the "moonwalk" because of a tapdancing move called "backslide" which he does in this filmed performance. What is moonwalks ? The moonwalk or backslide is a dance move in which the performer glides backwards but their body actions suggest forward motion.[1] The moonwalk is a popping move. It became popular around the world following Michael Jackson's moonwalk during the performance of "Billie Jean" on Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever, which was broadcast on May 16, 1983, and he included it in tours and live performances.[2] Jackson has been credited as renaming the "backslide" to the moonwalk and it became his signature move Technique An illusion is involved in creating the appearance of the dancer gliding backwards. Initially, the front foot is held flat on the ground, while the back foot is in a tiptoe position. The flat front foot remains on the ground but is sliding lightly and smoothly backward past the tip-toe back foot. What is now the front foot is lowered flat, while the back foot is raised into the tiptoe position. These steps are repeated over and over creating the illusion that the dancer is being pulled backwards by an unseen force while trying to walk forward. Variations of this move allow moonwalking to appear to glide forward, sideways, or even in a circle. History 1930s There are many recorded instances of the moonwalk; similar steps are reported as far back as 1932, used by Cab Calloway.[6] In 1985, Calloway said that the move was called "The Buzz" when he and others performed it in the 1930s 1940s In 1943, Bill Bailey performed the first backslide on screen in the movie The Cabin in the Sky. This dance move most closely resembles the renamed moonwalk. In 1944, Judy Garland and Margaret O'Brien portrayed something similar to the move in their performance of "Under the Bamboo Tree" in Meet Me in St. Louis, though their performance lacks the illusion created by the genuine moonwalk. 1950s and 1960s 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". In 1955, it was recorded in a performance by tap dancer Bill Bailey. He performs a tap routine, and at the end, backslides into the wings.[10] The French mime artist Marcel Marceau used it throughout his career (from the 1940s through the 1980s), as part of the drama of his mime routines. In Marceau's "Walking Against the Wind" routine, he pretends to be pushed backwards by a gust of wind.[11] In 1958, Mexican dancer-comedian Adalberto Martinez "Resortes" also performed the moonwalk in the film Colegio de Verano ("Summer School"). In a November 1969 episode of H.R. Pufnstuf, Judy the Frog teaches everyone a new dance called "The Moonwalk", which includes two instances of a stationary moonwalk 1970s In 1972, Lucie Arnaz in Here's Lucy Episode 9 of Season 5 "Lucy and Jim Bailey" Lucie does the moonwalk while singing "Fever" with Jim Bailey Choreographer Bob Fosse moonwalks in his role as the Snake in the 1974 film The Little Prince.[13] In the late 1970s, the long-running African-American TV dance show Soul Train featured a dance troupe called "The Electric Boogaloos" which routinely performed popping and locking dance moves including the moonwalk.[14]

It has also a been acknowledged that the professional wrestlers Michael "Pure 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

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