Ever since we were kids,
we've always wanted to dance or keep the time to the music.
And that's part of us, it's like something we have to have
and it's in us because I don't know what I would do if there wasn't music.
And we come up with different steps.
We've always done it that way.
And I think it's so much better when you
do it, when we do our own, because we know what we want.
My father used to always say, don't mess up.
I felt I knew every part and if something went wrong, I felt like I could cover it.
I dance a lot anyway.
I've always loved to dance.
When I was just real little, I used to watch Sammy Davis,
Fred Astaire and James Brown and just dancing about the house.
So I don't remember not dancing.
Fred Astaire once really gave me a wonderful compliment, that I was a wonderful
dancer and that he watched me all the time.
And I admire him so much.
I think James Brown is a genius when he's with the Famous Flames.
Just unbelievable.
And I used to watch him on television
and I used to get angry at the cameraman because whenever he would really start
to dance, it would be on a close up and I couldn't see his feet.
So I would throw things.
I'd be angry.
I said, Show him, show him so I can watch and learn.
It just happens when I come on stage
and you feel the audience, the forces back and forth.
When they get aroused, we get aroused.
And it's just a wonderful feeling.
I'm really not that outgoing when I'm off stage.
When I'm on stage, it's totally different. Really.
I'm actually another person.
Actually, you become like a stage addict.
I really am.
When there are off days and there is no
show, I'm up at night dancing, just the same.
It's really strange.
I guess I am an addict. I can't help it.
On stage is the most magic place I can be.
I can't put it in words.
It's escapism,
it's like walking on air.
To me, it's the safest place in the world.
I can't be hurt on stage.
I could sleep on stage.
I hate to leave stage.
It's wonderful.
What is it that goes through your mind when you perform?
I don't think that much.
I don't think at all, actually.
I'm feeling it.
It's not a thing of thinking or mechanics.
It's all spirit and feeling.
Well, the moonwalk came from these beautiful children.
These black kids who live in the
ghettos and the inner cities who are brilliant.
They just have that natural talent for dancing.
Any of the new hot dad, the Running Man,
any of these dances, they come up with these dances.
All I did was enhance the dance.
I wanted to do the five spins and go
on the toes and freeze there and just hold it and stay there.
And I didn't but they didn't know.
I'm never satisfied,
even when I see something that I've done and people say it was phenomenal.
When I did Motown 25 and I did The Moonwalk for the first time,
I was backstage crying afterwards because I was unhappy.
You cried after Motown 25?
But then as I was walking to the car,
there was this little boy, he was like twelve little Jewish kid.
And he said, you're amazing.
Who taught you to ever dance like that?
And for the first time I felt I did a good job because I know children don't lie.
And I just felt so good about it.
Then after my Motown performance where I
performed Billie Jean, I was the nominated for an Emmy in which I lost.
But my real award was the next day after
the show when Fred Astaire called my house.
He said I saw the show last night, I taped it, I watched it twice this morning.
And he said you're incredible.
You're a hell of a mover.
And I said, God, thank you.
It's so wonderful for you to say it because I think you're the best.
I just wanted, Give me a section where I can dance.
He said, no dancing in the whole piece.
He said, no dancing.
I said, Just give me one little moment.
So that whole section,
we see this long street and this billboard of these two girls.
One of them is Billie Jean and I'm dancing.
That's the only part I contributed.
I did beat it with Michael Peters, which I choreographed portions of that as well.
And as I told John Landis, I want Michael Peters to work on this thing.
And so we got together and we
did certain steps and he did a certain thing.
I said no, I don't like that.
And he said, yeah, I like this or I don't like that, what I did.
And we just finally end up agreeing on the piece.
Okay, here we go.
I remember my original approach was how do
you make zombies and monsters dance without it being comical?
So I said we have to do just the right kind of movement so it doesn't become
something that you laugh at, but it just has to be taken to another level.
So I kind of imagine
how the zombies should move by making faces in the mirror.
And I used to come to rehearsal sometimes
with monster makeup on and I love doing that.
So he and I collaborated and we both choreographed the piece.
I thought I should start that kind of thing.
Going to this kind of jazzy step kind of grew some things like that.
Not too much ballet or whatever.
Every time is different, every time.
Every time it's not going to be satisfying.
A lot of good stuff in certain.
Going to have a beat to go, to beat to go to the real musicians.
The music to represent the way we feel.
It's got to dictate our emotion, our moves.
We're expressing the way everybody feels, it's rebellion.
You know what I mean?
We're looking at what we always wanted to say to the world.
Exactly.
Passion, linger and fire.
You got more movement.
It should be more like something's going on inside.
That's why when we build it to.
A mountain and we bring it back down, it's got to have that emotion.
You probably heard the uproar over the new Michael Jackson video.
New Michael Jackson video is an event in itself.
Fox Broadcasting says that it made
a mistake in broadcasting the Eleven Minutes Black or White video last night.
The international broadcast premiere
of Black or White was immediately followed by uproar and
condemnation. In the dance,
I said, I want to do a dance number where
I can just put out my frustration about injustice and prejudice and racism
and bigotry and within the dance, I just became upset and I let go.
And that's what happened.
I think at the time people were concerned about the violent content of the piece.
But it's easy to look at.
Why do you always grab your crotch?
Why do I grab my crotch?
We think you got to thing with your crotch going on.
I think it happens subliminally when I dance.
If you're a dancer, you know,
you're just interpreting the sounds and the accompaniment of the music.
If there's a driving bass, you become the bass.
If there's a cello, if there's a string, you become that.
So you become the emotion of what that sound is.
Okay? So if I'm doing a movie and I go, bam,
and I grab myself, it's the music that compels me to do it.
It's not saying, I'm getting ready to grab down there and it's not in a great place.
You don't think about it. It just happens.
Sometimes I look back at the footage and I go and I go, Did I do that?
How do you all feel about Michael grabbing his crotch in those videos?
I don't like that.
It's just part of his dance.
Yeah, but I don't like that.
I don't like it either.
No. When people were saying Michael was
grabbing his crouch, he was not grabbing his crouch at that time.
He's putting his hand in his belt was like this on his side of his head.
And after they said he was grabbing the crouch I don't know, maybe.
I think it's a feeling and the music and all that.
What do you have in mind?
Just trust me, Bryan.
I know exactly what to do.
You've got to be aggressive. Even more.
More aggressive than Michael Jackson's treatment of his own groin on stage.
Thank you.