The moonwalk is a dance move in which the dancer moves backwards while seemingly walking forwards.^[1] Formerly known as the "backslide", the moonwalk is a popping move. It became popular around the world following Michael Jackson's moonwalk during the performance of "Billie Jean" on Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever, which was broadcast on May 16, 1983.^[2] Jackson has been credited as renaming the "backslide" to the moonwalk and it became his signature move.^[3][4][5]

An illusion is involved in creating the appearance of the dancer gliding backwards. Initially, the front foot is held flat on the ground, while the back foot is in a tiptoe position. The flat front foot remains on the ground but is slid lightly and smoothly backward past the tip-toe back foot. What is now the front foot is lowered flat, while the back foot is raised into the tiptoe position. These steps are repeated over and over creating the illusion that the dancer is being pulled backwards by an unseen force while trying to walk forward. Variations of this move allow moonwalking to appear to glide forward, sideways, or even in a circle.

There are many recorded instances of the moonwalk; similar steps are reported as far back as 1932, used by Cab Calloway.^[6] In 1985, Calloway said that the move was called "The Buzz" when he and others performed it in the 1930s.^[7][8]

In 1944, Judy Garland and Margaret O'Brien featured something like the move in their performance of "Under the Bamboo Tree" in Meet Me in St. Louis, though their performance lacks the illusion created by the genuine moonwalk.^[9]

In the 1950s, Dick Van Dyke performed a similar variation of the moonwalk and camel walk in his comedy routine called "Mailing A Letter On A Windy Corner".

In 1955, it was recorded in a performance by tap dancer Bill Bailey. He performs a tap routine, and at the end, backslides into the wings.^[10] The French mime artist Marcel Marceau used it throughout his career (from the 1940s through the 1980s), as part of the drama of his mime routines. In Marceau's "Walking Against the Wind" routine, he pretends to be pushed backwards by a gust of wind.^[11]

In 1958, Mexican dancer-comedian Adalberto Martinez "Resortes" also performed the moonwalk in the film Colegio de Verano (Summer School).

In a November 1969 episode of H.R. Pufnstuf, Judy the Frog teaches everyone a new dance called "The Moonwalk", which includes two instances of a stationary moonwalk.^[12]

In 1972, Lucie Arnaz in Here's Lucy Episode 9 of Season 5 "Lucy and Jim Bailey" Lucie does the Moonwalk while singing "Fever" with Jim Bailey

Choreographer Bob Fosse moonwalks in his role as the Snake in the 1974 film The Little Prince. ^[13]

In the late 1970's, the long-running African American TV dance show "Soul Train" featured a dance troupe called "The Electric Boogaloos" which routinely performed popping and locking dance moves including the Moon Walk.^[14]

It has also a been acknowledged that the professional wrestlers Michael "Pure Sexy" Hayes, Terry Gordy, and Buddy Roberts started doing the moonwalk as their trademark ring entrance by 1979 when they formed a wrestling stable known as The Fabulous Freebirds.^[15]

James Brown used the move^[16]. In 1981 in the promotional single and music video Crosseyed and Painless by new wave band Talking Heads, authentic street dancers, picked by David Byrne, are featuring, including Stephen "Skeeter Rabbit" Nichols doing the moonwalk.^[17] It reached to 20 on the US dance charts.

Another early moonwalker was popper and singer Jeffrey Daniel, who moonwalked in a performance of Shalamar's "A Night To Remember" on Top of the Pops in the UK in 1982^[18] and was known to perform backslides in public performances (including weekly Soul Train episodes) as far back as 1974. Michael Jackson was a fan of Jeffrey Daniel's dancing and would eventually seek him out.

Also in 1982, Debbie Allen performs a moonwalk during a scene with Gwen Verdon in Season 1, Episode 10 ("Come One, Come All") of the TV series Fame.^[19]

In Flashdance, the move was used in the B-boy scene, where Rock Steady Crew's Mr. Freeze (Marc Lemberger), with an umbrella prop, mimed the wind blowing him backward as he first walks forward, fighting the wind, then starts moonwalking backwards. Mr. Freeze's version was also shown in the first hip hop movie Wild Style and Malcolm McLaren film clip "Buffalo Gals".^[20]

In the 1984 movie Streets of Fire, actor and performer Stoney Jackson executed a moonwalk as the leader of a fictional group, The Sorels, who lip-synced to the Dan Hartman song "I Can Dream About You".

Jeffrey Daniel taught Michael Jackson the moonwalk. Jackson saw Daniel do the moonwalk dance on Soul Train and had his manager call Soul Train to introduce him to the dancer. Daniel was touring with Shalamar at the time so Derek Cooley Jackson and Caszper Candidate went to teach Jackson. However, Jackson, who later became known as Cooley Jaxson,^[21] was not able to pick up and master the technique until Daniel returned from tour and worked with him. Michael Jackson first performed the dance in public on March 25, 1983,^[22] in front of a live audience at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium. The dance became world famous two months later when Jackson performed it during a television special, Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever. Dressed in his signature black trousers, silver socks, silver shirt, black-sequined jacket, rhinestoned glove, and black fedora, Jackson spun around, posed, and began moonwalking. Music critic Ian Inglis later wrote that Jackson encapsulated a long tradition of African-American dance movements in that one performance.^[16] Moonwalking received widespread attention, and from then on, the moonwalk became Jackson's signature move for his song "Billie Jean". Nelson George said that Jackson's rendition "combined Jackie Wilson's athleticism with James Brown's camel walk". Michael Jackson's autobiography was titled Moonwalk, and he also starred in a 1988 film titled Moonwalker.

Alexei Kovalev has been known for using the moonwalk in his National Hockey League career.^[23] He performed the move after scoring a goal on February 7, 2001, and on January 3, 2010. Kovalev moonwalked onto the ice after being named one of the stars of the game and again after scoring in a 2008 celebrity charity soccer game.

In 2018, Alessia Cara briefly used the moonwalk in the music video for her song "Trust My Lonely."^[24]