Tag: Michael Jackson

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8/7/15 O&A Shall We Dance Friday: Michael Jackson – Smooth Criminal

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Shall We Dance

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Smooth Criminal is the seventh single from Michael Jackson’s 1987 Bad album. Jackson originally wanted to make the music video in the western genre, but he later decided after watching “The Third Man” with Director Colin Chilvers to change it to a 1930s gangster style. Jeffrey Daniel of the soul music group Shalamar co-choreographed the Smooth Criminal video with Jackson and Vincent Paterson, who was a back-up dancer in Beat It and Thriller.

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The dance sequence of the video in the 1930s style lounge (and Jackson’s white suit and fedora) pays tribute to the Fred Astaire musical comedy film The Band Wagon. Jackson and some of the dancers around him perform a seemingly impossible forward lean. For the video, this was done using harness cables. To accomplish this maneuver for stage performances, though, Jackson co-patented a hitching mechanism which was built into the floor of the stage and the performer’s shoes.

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Michael Jackson – Smooth Criminal

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5/2/15 O&A Its Saturday- Anything Goes: Diana ! Diana Ross Special Featuring The Jackson 5 (1971)

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It is Saturday

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Diana! Diana Ross’ first solo TV special, which aired on ABC on April 18, 1971. The special featured performances by The Jackson 5, and Jackson 5 lead singer Michael Jackson’s solo debut. Other guests included Danny Thomas and Bill Cosby. Continue reading

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1/11/15 O&A Gospel Sunday: Andraé Crouch

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GOSPEL SUNDAY

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Andraé Crouch died on Thursday, January 8, 2015 after being admitted to the hospital last weekend following a heart attack. The Grammy-winning gospel singer, songwriter and choir director graced songs by Michael Jackson and Madonna and movies such as The Lion King. Continue reading

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2/13/16 (REPOST) O&A NYC ITS SATURDAY ANYTHING GOES: Naomi Campbell Supermodel

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Naomi Elaine Campbell, an English-born model, of African Jamaican descent and Chinese Jamaican ancestry through her paternal grandmother, who carried the family name Ming. Recruited at the age of 15, she established herself among the top three most recognizable and in-demand models of the late 1980s and the 1990s, and she was one of six models of her generation declared supermodels by the fashion world. Continue reading

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1/2/15 O&A Shall We Dance Friday: Storyboard P- An Urban Storyteller

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Storyboard P has pushed street dancing in a darker, more mature direction of urban storytelling he calls Mutant. The twenty-three year old Brooklyn dancer  combines jarring feats of contortion, pantomime, floating footwork and simulated levitation. His choreography, most of it improvised, has a wide range of influences: Jerome Robbins, especially his work in West Side Story; the Nicholas Brothers, whose acrobatic tap-dancing routines amazed Fred Astaire in the nineteen-forties; and, above all, Michael Jackson.  Continue reading

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11/27/14 O&A Shall We Dance Friday: Alphonso Ribeiro

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 By Walter Rutledge

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Alfonso Lincoln Ribeiro, Sr. is an actor, television director, dancer, and game show host. Ribeiro is most notably known for playing Alfonso Spears on the sitcom Silver Spoons, and Carlton Banks on the NBC sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, he hosted the GSN show Catch 21 and the ABC Family show Spell-Mageddon. He also starred in the title role of the Broadway musical The Tap Dance Kid, and appeared as a dancer in a Pepsi commercial also featuring Michael Jackson. On Tuesday, November 25, 2014 Ribeiro won Dancing With The Stars 19. Continue reading

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10/31/14 O&A Throwback Thursday Halloween Edition: Michael Jackson’s Thriller

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Michael Jackson’s Thriller is an American 13-minute music video for the song of the same name released on December 2, 1983. It was directed by John Landis, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Michael Jackson. It was MTV’s first world premiere video.

Voted as the most influential pop music video of all time, Thriller proved to have a profound effect on popular culture. It was named “a watershed moment for the music industry” for its unprecedented merging of filmmaking and music. Guinness World Records listed it in 2006 as the “most successful music video”, selling over nine million copies.

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Up in the Air- Honoring Louis Johnson

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Up in the Air is a feature-length documentary about legendary dancer, choreographer and director Louis Johnson. Narrated by Johnson, with additional commentary by his colleagues and friends- people he’s known and influenced for over six decades. The artists who have committed to share their experiences with Johnson include as luminaries as: Chita Rivera, George Faison, Carmen De Lavallade, Sylvia Waters, Desmond Richardson and Troy Powell. The initial goal is to raise $30,000 for the pre-production and production costs through a Kickstarter campaign. Continue reading

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10/16/14 O&A Throwback Thursday: Diana Ross- Standing Room Only Live At Ceasar’s Palace (1980)

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The HBO special, first aired in early 1980 as part of the network’s Standing Room Only series. It was taped in 1979 at Caesar’s Palace as Ross promoted her then-current album, The Boss. The album, featuring writers/producers Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson, featured songs that showed off a range and power that many had forgotten Diana Ross possessed. This was a peak time in the diva’s career; Ross dazzled audience around the world with her demanding, Tony Award-winning An Evening With Diana Ross stage show, and starred with protege Michael Jackson in the 1978 film The Wiz.  Continue reading

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9/19/14 O&A Shall We Dance Friday: Michael Jackson- Smooth Criminal

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Shall We Dance

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Smooth Criminal is the seventh single from Michael Jackson’s 1987 Bad album. The song contains a fast-paced beat intertwined with Jackson’s lyrics. It was released as a single on October 24, 1988, and peaked at number seven on the Billboard Hot 100. Continue reading