Michael Jackson, great artist, an icon was not just a singer but an incredible dancer. He won eight Grammys in one night and was the first artist to sell more than a million digital tracks in one week.
People around the world, to this day try to imitate his smooth slides and spins, his crotch grab and of course, his trademark moonwalk. But there is another dance move Michael Jackson performed that many of us still scratching heads our about. Remember his 1988 music video for "Smooth Criminal"?
Michael Jackson's patented in October 26, 1993 shoe.
In one scene, Jackson and a few of his dancers effortlessly lean forward 45 degrees with their backs straight, feet flat upon the floor, and hold the pose until they return upright. Effortlessly!
"It's not really possible physically to do it," said neurosurgeon Dr. Nishant Yagnick, a longtime Jackson fan who practices at the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in Chandigarh, India to CNN. "He was cheating gravity."
"You can bend a maximum of 25 or 30 degrees forward before you fall on your face," added his colleague Dr. Manjul Tripathi, another fan. "I tried to do it, and I fell."
The shoes "have a specially designed heel slot which can be detachably engaged" with a "hitch" (such as a nail) projected through the stage surface "by simply sliding the shoe wearer's foot forward, thereby engaging with the hitch member," according to the US Patent Office description.
Now you know the trick Michael Jackson used to make people believe he was THE dancer of all the dancers. Many people hurt themselves over trying this tilt trick, landing on their faces. And many still do try to attempt it. Guess no more. The secret is now open.
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Mother and son, two of the finest alpinists of their eras, gone too soon, a quarter of a century apart.