Bill Bailey Moonwalk
According to one bio bailey began dancing in his preacher fathers church.
Bill bailey moonwalk. Bill bailey december 8 1912 december 12 1978 was an african american tap dancer. Videoclip of bill bailey from approximately 1955. But actually bill bailey pupil of bill robinson performed the very same step as early as 1943 in the movie cabin in the sky which you can see here as well as the 1955 film. Origins of the moonwalk dancers in alphabetical order.
The most well known dancer as the orignal moonwalker should be bill bailey who performed it in the film showtime at the apollo 1955 which was also featured in the movie tap 1989. In 1943 bill bailey performed the first backslide on screen in the movie the cabin in the sky. So where does mime come in. Louis though their performance lacks the illusion.
Bubbles was 1st but bailey was obvious more innovative because of his style and the dance he invented the backslide but you all know it as the moonwalk he influenced a few different generations after his era was over everyone from sammy davis jr. I was pretty shocked to see the last few. He was the brother of pearl bailey. Bailey born on december 8 1912 in newport news virginia is the older brother of late singer and actress pearl bailey.
However the moonwalk might have been a later incarnation of a dance move allegedly invented by tap dancer bill bailey. For his era 1930s 1950s he was considered the 2nd most popular rhythm tap dancer john w. Bill was the first person to be recorded doing the moonwalk although he referred to it as the backslide in the film cabin in the sky 1943 starring ethel waters eddie rochester anderson and lena horne. Fred astaire bill bailey buck and bubbles cab calloway clark brothers sammy davis jr daniel l.
To gregory hines and of course the late michael jackson. There was also a popular ragtime dance in the same era called the camel walk which is a forward zigzag dance step that also requires the dancer to drag his feet.