Jeffrey Daniel of Shalamar, the man who taught Michael Jackson the iconic Moonwalk, has opened up about his experience with the King of Pop.
Before MJ made the move legendary at Motown 25 in 1983, it was Jeffrey who first performed the backslide on Top of the Pops, catching Jackson's attention and leading to a personal request for lessons.
With Shalamar preparing for their Greatest Hits Tour, Jeffrey had an exclusive sit-down with The Mirror, sharing tales from his admiration for UK audiences to the surreal moment he met Michael Jackson and passed on the dance move that would become synonymous with the superstar.
Jeffrey went as far as labelling MJ a "sponge" when it came to taking in new details.
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Jeffrey shot to fame in the band Shalamar, with him also becoming a renowned choreographer (Getty Images)
Michael Jackson performed at Motown 25 in 1983 (Paul Drinkwater/NBC via Getty Images)"I did a couple of exhibition dances on Soul Train. Little did I know that Michael Jackson was watching," he told us. "I was watching the Jackson Five, of course, but I never would have dreamt that that Michael Jackson was watching me. I was his favorite dancer on Soul Train. And eventually, he made me a call to teach him how to do the dance," Jeffrey revealed during the interview.
Jeffrey shared his groundbreaking moment from 1982, "When I came to the UK in 1982," he said, because Jody Wately was pregnant and couldn't travel, "I did something that had never been done before. I did a solo dance to our song.
"I wasn't lip-syncing, I wasn't singing it. I just danced through the whole song and that was so unprecedented and it had never been done before and it just caught everybody by surprise, and it captured their hearts that moment on and it actually introduced street dancing into Europe and the UK."
It was this very performance where Jeffrey executed the iconic backslide which led Michael Jackson to reach out to him. After receiving the life-altering call, Jeffrey recounted his experiences with the pop legend: "The first four or five times that I went to his house, just to give him dancing instructions, and I'm just one-on-one with Michael Jackson... I'm pinching myself, you know, when it's time to wrap up and leave and I'm walking to my car going 'I was with Michael Jackson, I was with Michael Jackson, I was with Michael Jackson', it took a while to get over that because he was so elusive He was so, you know, far away. You only saw him on TV," he reminisced.
Shalamar will embark on a Greatest Hits tour this spring/summer in the UK (Getty Images)Overwhelmed by his personal encounters, Jeffrey expressed his awe at being "one on one with the greatest entertainer on the planet", confessing: "It took some getting used to."
"I worked with him over a 20-year-period," he revealed, recalling his time in the iconic Beat It music video and his role in co-choreographing the Bad and Smooth Criminal videos. Jeffrey also shared insights into his creative consulting for the short Ghost movie and his trip to Brazil for They Don't Really Care About Us.
"I'm ever grateful that he even just took me into his fold and allowed me to work with him. And I learned a lot from him too, I learned things about, you know, dynamics and storyboarding, and this and that, he was a very creative person, and he's like a sponge, he just soaked up everything and that's what made him such a great entertainer."
After working with Michael, Jeffrey became a sought-after choreographer, contributing to numerous high-profile music videos including Vanessa Williams' debut The Right Stuff.
Jeffrey Daniel, Howard Hewett, and Carolyn Griffey are set to dazzle fans across the UK with Shalamar's Greatest Hits Tour this spring and summer. Additionally, they're gearing up to perform at the Fool in Love Festival, slated for August 31, 2024, at the Hollywood Park Grounds at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, CA.
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