How to learn michael jackson thriller dance

ThrillerNYC

2022 Village Halloween Parade

We are thrilled to invite new dancers (virgins) and old dancers (vets) back to the graveyard this year!

We will resume indoor rehearsals to teach you the dance and bring all zombies together in Central Park for one final outdoor rehearsal. We can't wait to taste...ahem...see you soon.

'Cause this is Thriller

Since 2004, we have celebrated our combined love of gore and Michael Jackson by performing the infamous Thriller dance in the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade. We are between 17 and a million years old, and our dance experience ranges from novice to professional. We eat brains, grrrrrrrrrowl and bite, but most importantly, we boogie.

This Halloween, leave your mundane human life behind and transform into a rotting, dancing cadaver. After studio rehearsals, outdoor practices in Central Park, and zombie makeup lessons, you'll be hungering for brains in no time.

Learn The Dance

After several restless months clamoring in our coffins, we are pretty stiff. Time to practice the choreography so we don't fall apart out there.

Zombie Bouncers

Have you been decaying too long and don't think you can hobble fast enough for the dance? We have a limited number of zombie bouncer positions available.

Our living spectators often get so excited by our group that they want to join in. We don't want them distracting our zombies with their delicious brains, so it will be up to you to keep them at bay. If you are interested in becoming a zombie bouncer, contact [email protected].

With the ThrillerNYC group, we made it our mission to keep Michael and one of his greatest accomplishments alive. His legend will always live on as the best entertainer to grace this planet.
Makeda Davis

Schedule

Sunday, October 23
1:30 – 4:30 pm
Indoor Rehearsal

Ballroom Hub
410-412 8th Ave, NYC

Masks encouraged
Sunday, October 30
11 am – 1 pm
Outdoor Rehearsal

Naumburg Bandshell
Central Park, NYC
Monday, October 31
Halloween Parade

Meeting point and details TBD

Registration

HOW TO THRILLER DANCE LIKE MICHAEL JACKSON STEP BY STEP FOR BEGINNERS | Cameron Cole

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Taught by industry leaders & working professionals

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So you want to learn Michael Jackson Thriller dance choreography? Well, you've come to the right place! Michael Jackson's song "Thriller" decades later is still one of the most popular hits for Halloween playlists. I've had the chance to perform this dance for the last 10 years and also in Halloween parades.

In this course, I will teach you step by step dance moves and tips and tricks on learning this epic choreography. This is a fun Thriller dance tutorial you can show off after learning it. These Thriller dance moves are the mark for ages!

This course is for all skill levels. With consistent practice and effort, I will turn you into a Michael Jackson dancing machine:)

Always remember to have fun during this process. Dance is the celebration of life through body movements.

Lets got zombies!

Meet Your Teacher

Cameron Cole

Stay Blessed and Keep Dancing!

Teacher

Hello Skillshare! It's Cameron Cole your dancing affiliate!

I am a self-taught Hip Hop dancer from a small town in Iowa. I started at the age of 19 in college and went pro after years of hard work and consistency. Eventually, I became a teacher and now I perform professionally at my local casino doing Michael Jackson impersonations and much more! I've even gotten the chance to open up for various platinum artists such as Twista, & The Ying Yang Twins. My Git Up Challenge Youtube dance video was featured in the 2019 Teen Choice Awards which broke 1 Million Youtube Views!

Dance is a huge passion of mine and makes life more exciting for me and my team as well. I love how the power of dance breaks all boundaries and stereotyp... See full profile

Hands-on Class Project

Tag me on your Instagram doing this Thriller dance @Cameroncoledancer

and hashtags #Thrillerdance n the caption as well

P.S.

If you don't want to post it on Instagram for everyone to see you can send me a private message on Instagram @Cameroncolddancer as well:)

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Transcripts

1. INTRO: you guys just can't Ricotta danced Affiliate Got it right the first time. Pat on the back We live here. You're interested. Learned how to do with thriller Michael Jackson thriller Dance for Beginners. I'm gonna take your step by step every move, every aspect of the dance so you can go out and do it short to your friends family. Or did your friends I'd do it, turned them into zombies. You guys can perform it at your next Halloween birthday wedding or is doing fun. Let's go, Let's go, Let's do it zombie L. 2. PART 1 - ZOMBIE MARCH: so guys can call dance. Will, you are what? Throw dance. First move you do start in March. Arms down. You start life after that. Works fast. Fast your head. 23. So 56 four, four for right here yet together they'll Yeah. Do Clause pushed right before your eyes. Yeah. Okay. Hello with Kylie's Try. Onion. 23 Okay. Okay. It's like that is our life that works fast will be faster. Three clicks. Six, four for it's right here. Yep. Together. You Dale? Yeah. Good. New push. Right before your head. Well, okay. Oh, switch, please. Trying. Okay. Okay. It's like that. Paul, stop your overall game for part two. Chemical here. See you next. 3. PART 2 - TRAVEL STEPS: chemical dance till you welcome. Parts claws. Right? Right there. Right. - Retail for us to you get jumpers. That's Yeah. What? Yours? Lesbian or get games. Right? Right. You were there. Right? Okay. Re culture. What? Jungers Get what? Yours. Let's get Yeah, Yeah, right that over and over. Okay. See you, partner. 4. PART 3 - ROCK YA HIPS: chemical. NASA's 1,000,000,000 artery, wherever the collapse turns is always like this. Right? Right north of the door, Dan. Video born before. Like that, We're going to stay in place. What's your dance? That? Whatever 1 may put it to your side. Hands out. Six. Right, Right, right. If they turn up, throw down. Yeah. Did have that. People should write it up. 23 sits back. Trap. Yeah. Let's go from Let's go from me. Six. That march left right more. Hey, you know, that's right. Jurors, Killers six yours. Two of those turns his own right. All right. Right north of the door. Dance video. Going for like that. We're going to stay in place. What? You dance down? Whatever you want. Put it to your side. Right? Right, right. Neo scarecrow that people should right? Put up what? To six? Yeah. Let's go from here to that march. Right? War, you know? Right. Jurors, six to yours. Those I can go See you next 5. PART 4 - ALMOST THERE!: All right. So after the little yours, yours slain, right else. Sweet. Before I left So that you turn back again. Rare. That Qatar swing track over the shoulder. Right now you play three like four. You got that right. One to three. Is that? Yeah. You watch. Right? Right. Throw together. Right, Right. Three seconds. You down here? Great souls stops. I love you. Well, you are More space. You take up. Look. 23 We'll see you next. 6. PART 5 - LETS FINISH THE DANCE: so for next move, understand your go. Three seconds. 123 Get a march, right. Six. Sure, the sandal stops then. Well, se is part What? Really? Can I? There's we'll get top six. Really? Really. Horse one. You get a doctor, right? A real cop cop cop. You walk This part's on holdouts around this 40 minutes Free sale. Smart is going to say you go again. Really? Really. Free cell again. Okay. Told whatever Jackson this is really tonight. Tonight. You right back to sleep. Top three Love. Dr What? This This this this 7. CONGRATS ! FULL DANCE NOW! / OUTRO: way, Dad. So that's the full throw, Nance. Thanks for staying with May. Everyone's being Jackson King. Congratulations, people. Well, lawyers say Frank's chemical building look up last can be suggestive dancing to learn best me.

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Michael Jackson's "Thriller": zombie video as a music lesson

"Tell me, who is Michael Jackson?" Carl Esser had no MTV and no idea of the King of Pop when he was in the US on a student exchange in 1983. Until there was a class about one new music video. "Thriller" was a revelation to German students and led many young people to decide to take a dance class in order to learn the moonwalk.

Nobody knew exactly what they were talking about. One thing was clear: a music video was planned, and there would be no regular music lessons.

Hmm, what could it be? The next morning there was a rumor that our music teacher, Mr. Bjornson, would be giving a class on the new Michael Jackson video. I was wondering who it was - Michael Jackson, but I did not dare to ask the question openly. It seemed like every classmate of mine in 12th grade at Barnesville High School in Minnesota knew who the person whose video we'd be seeing right in front of us was in just over an hour.

Yeah, I thought, this must be interesting, otherwise there wouldn't be so much fuss about it. And before that, I also had a computer science lesson with my ardently and dearly beloved Apple-II computers. Because time passed quickly, and it cost me nothing to wait for a supposedly big event.

"So you never watched MTV?"

Shortly after ten, the time came and the choir hall quickly filled up. Together with my friend Le, I took seats in the upper rows of the hall in order to have a good view of the big screen. "Who is Michael Jackson?" I quietly asked Le. "You don't know Michael Jackson? That doesn't do you credit!" I felt like a backward provincial from an old European woman. "So you've never watched MTV?"

I have already heard about MTV and once even watched the channel for a few minutes at my friend's place. At the time, I was staying with a host family who ran a dairy farm, and there wasn't even cable TV, let alone MTV. I was already glad that on these several channels I could at least watch TV shows: Knight Rider, The Dukes of Hazzard and Magnum P.I. Le lived in the city, and of course he had cable - and therefore MTV.

At my home in Bavaria, at that time they did not know about cable TV. Since the antenna was on the roof, in addition to the obligatory three programs (ARD, ZDF, BR), only a flickering screen, and sometimes a test chart, could be seen on a black-and-white TV. But I never confessed this to my friend Le.

"Bonanza" instead of "Thriller"

Mr. Bjornson, casual as usual, with a toothpick in his teeth, asked for silence in the hall. Everyone listened more or less calmly about Michael Jackson's career with the Jackson Five, and how within a few years, especially after his successful album Off the Wall, he was already recognized all over the world. But now with his new album and in particular the video for the latest hit "Thriller" he has surpassed everything that was before. After this brief preface, he rather touchingly announced the video as if the moon landing was about to begin broadcasting.

He put in a video cassette and pressed "Play". After a brief flicker of the screen, a picture of "Hoss" Cartwright galloping appeared, and the famous music of the Bonanza western series began to play in the hall. Immediately there was a whistle and shouts of "Oooo!"

Clearly embarrassed and annoyed by the incident, Björnson turned off the VCR and pulled out the cassette. "Sorry," he muttered, blushing. - "Sorry guys." He disappeared behind a glass door in the study that served as his office. Through the glass, one could see the incredible mess that was going on in his teacher's music collection. "Found it!" he exclaimed as he reappeared, holding up the cassette as proof, like a pastor in a church with communion bread. He put the tape down nervously and pressed play again.

Dancing zombies and open mouths

The actors were unknown to me, and in the first seconds I felt disappointed. How? So this is that incredible music video? And anyway, why is this clip? It's a movie, and it looks boring on top of that. But the disappointment did not last long. It passed before I could lean over Le to express my displeasure.

The transformation of a young black actor, who I thought was probably Michael Jackson, into a catlike creature with yellow eyes and a zombie appearance, around which more and more monsters were rhythmically gathering. The masks were perfect, but the dance routines showed dynamics and choreography that I had never seen before.

We must all be frozen in our seats with our mouths open, staring at the TV screen. Almost ten minutes of absolute concentration. Then the video ended. For the first moments everyone was stunned silent, but then several voices demanded from Bjornson: "One more time!" He didn't try to protest, just rewound the cassette and hit play again. This time we saw more details, perceived the video differently and heard the music better. It was, without a doubt, a revelation. It surpassed anything we had seen before, and not only musically!

Moonwalk dance teacher

After the second viewing, the frenzy started - everyone wanted to say something, many shared that they had a cold shiver running down their backs. "Awesome!" - this was the most popular definition for describing that event. It was amazing, great, powerful, wonderful. Top notch event.

Video and music were all discussed again in the following sessions. Some time after the appearance of other videos from the Thriller album on MTV, Le began to imitate the famous "moonwalk" of Michael Jackson. He wanted to learn how to dance like Michael Jackson - and he wasn't the only one.

Sometime in the early nineties (we didn't lose sight of each other after my year-long internship) Le wrote to me that he had been taking dance lessons for several weeks from a teacher in Minneapolis who was already the choreographer for Michael Jackson and Prince. When we next saw each other, he showed me his skills. To be honest? Surely Michael Jackson would have died laughing...

Top 10 best Michael Jackson videos

Stories
News

Even during his lifetime, the performer became a legend, and his compositions entered the golden fund of world music. The videos shot for the songs of Michael Jackson are deservedly called classics, and some of them still inspire modern video makers to this day.

August 29, 201918 997

15 Grammy Awards, 25 Guinness World Records, a billion albums and singles sold are just some of Michael Jackson's accomplishments. He made a huge contribution to the development of pop culture, dance and fashion industry.

In addition, the artist is called the king of the music video. With the help of complex storylines, special effects and choreography, Jackson turned the commercials into works of art. Eminent representatives of show business appeared in the episodes of his recordings, which further increased the interest of the audience. Once having made his way to MTV, the singer became the main star of the channel.

The topics that Michael brought up in short commercials aroused the respect of his colleagues: love, loneliness, equality, environmental disasters. So, one of the most heartfelt videos was Earth Song, where the artist focused public attention on the problems of poaching and wildlife protection. But there were also many records that were optimistic. On the singer's birthday, we remember his best clips.

THRILLER

Jackson needed a professional to create a 1950s horror video. Therefore, the director was John Landis, who previously shot comedies and horror films. The filming budget, according to John, was half a million dollars.

According to the story, Michael's hero comes with his beloved to a dark forest, where he proposes to her. The girl agrees, but the boyfriend warns: he has a second "I". Then Jackson turns into a werewolf and chases after a frightened girlfriend. The phantasmagoria continues - it turns out that everything happened only on the cinema screen, then the musician turns into a living dead man.

“I was actively involved in the development and creation of the story. She must be, you know, my soul. You need to work very carefully. How can you make zombies and monsters dance without being comical? We just had to put the movements right so that they didn’t become something that made the audience laugh, ”said Michael.

Critics responded positively to the video, and as a result, the mini-movie was nominated for the MTV Music Awards in six categories at once. In the late 90s, the video took first place in the list of the best videos according to the channel. It was after Thriller that Jackson got regular rotation on MTV.

BILLIE JEAN

Today this song is recognized from the first chords, and in the 80s it made a real revolution in the world of music. The same can be said about the clip through which Michael Jackson conveyed the story of the paparazzi chasing him. The video, directed by Steve Barron, was constantly played on MTV, which contributed to the increase in sales of the single. The director approached the issue creatively: he wanted to embody the theme of myths on the screen. On the recording, everything that Jackson touches glows - this is a direct reference to the epic of King Midas.

During a performance at a Billie Jean concert on March 25, 1983, Michael demonstrated his first moonwalk. The song brought him two Grammys at once, and later became one of the most copied in the world: various artists made covers and remixes of the composition. Jackson later admitted that the track helped him make a fortune, buy a luxurious house and a car.

By February 2014, the video had reached 100 million views. In addition, a successful video prompted other artists, such as Madonna, to invest more in clips: by the mid-80s, it became obvious that rotation on television had a positive effect on the distribution of albums.

BEAT IT

The next triumph of the performer was the clip shot by Bob Giraldi. The record company refused to finance the video, and Jackson himself paid for the director's work, which was valued at $150,000.

According to the plot, Michael acts as a peacemaker, settling the conflict between two street gangs. After the release of the video, critics accused Giraldi of copying West Side Story, but both he and Jackson denied any connection with the musical.

For realism, the singer even invited real gangsters from the Crips and Bloods gangs to shoot. The contrast was obvious: 30 professional dancers and 80 hooligans.

BAD

The video was directed by Martin Scorsese himself, and its budget was $2.2 million, which automatically included Bad in the list of the most expensive clips. No wonder - the recording lasted 18 minutes, it was a short film, not just a video for a song.

Of course, TV channels could not rotate a video of this size, and a four-minute version was released especially for MTV. The main role in the film was played by the then-beginning career of Wesley Snipes, who embodied the leader of the gang on the screen. Again, the theme of confrontation between street hooligans dominated the video. The first half of the video was made in black and white.

Michael paid special attention to the costume: walking along Melrose Boulevard, he bought a jacket and trousers, and then took the clothes to the tailor, where they sewed belts and buckles on them. The image was highly appreciated by the designers.

Many years later, in 2012, an auction was held in the United States, where Michael Jackson's things were sold. 55 items of clothing were purchased by his loyal fan - Lady Gaga. The singer did not specify what exactly from the collection of the king of pop migrated to her wardrobe. But it is known that the same jacket from the Bad clip left the auction for 240 thousand dollars.

SMOOTH CRIMINAL

In 1987, the musician starred in the film "Moonwalk", where his best performances were collected. The central part of the picture was the episode Smooth Criminal, a video in which the artist dances in the form of a gangster of the 30s. Michael originally wanted to use a western theme, but changed his mind. Tribute Jackson dedicated to his idol, actor and choreographer Fred Astaire.

Director Colin Chilvers responsibly approached the preparation of the issue, asking Michael to watch the detective story "The Third Man" first, so that he would feel the atmosphere of the film. The contractor appreciated the idea, and as a result, similar techniques for working with light and framing were used in the video.

There was a scandal on the set: invited Jehovah's Witnesses, in whose community Jackson had been since childhood, told the singer that if he used weapons in the video, he would be expelled from the religious organization. Michael reacted calmly to the ultimatum - he made a choice in favor of an artist's career and did not change the idea of \u200b\u200bthe video.

BLACK OR WHITE

Michael Jackson enlisted Macaulay Culkin and Tess Harper to appear in this video. This time, special effects played a dominant role in the video. Particularly awesome to start 90's was the morphing technique: the actor turned his head, and in a moment the audience saw another person. Subsequently, such manipulations with the camera were repeated hundreds of times.

The video lasted 11 minutes, but since in the second part the king of pop crushed everything around and turned into a black panther with the help of animation technology, only the first segment of the clip, not so provocative, was allowed to be shown on television.

The video begins with a family conflict: a father forces his son to take out the garbage, and in retaliation, he takes out a guitar and plays rock. By the force of sound, the man is pushed out the window, and he lands in Africa, surrounded by natives. Throughout the video, the plans change, creating a cycle of sights from around the world.

REMEMBER THE TIME

Rolling Stone magazine confidently called Michael Jackson's vocals in the song one of the best of his entire career. The composition beat records in the charts, and, therefore, the video had to correspond to the level. The performer asked director John Singleton to make the video "as cool as possible".

Eddie Murphy and basketball player Magic Johnson took part in the shooting. Jackson played the magician there. Together, the stars showed Ancient Egypt with its slaves and cruel rulers in the video. Michael in the story confronts the pharaoh and seduces his queen.

IN THE CLOSET

The video for the third single from Dangerous was Michael's debut as a director. Initially, the artist was supposed to perform the composition in a duet with Madonna, but due to disagreements over the lyrics of the song, the collaboration did not take place. But the famous Naomi Campbell starred in the video. Interestingly, the mysterious female voice-over does not belong to the model, as listeners thought, but to the youngest daughter of Grace Kelly, Princess Stephanie.

The video was filmed in the desert of Southern California, where, according to Jackson, the erotic dance of his character with Naomi looked especially impressive.