The ‘Smooth Criminal’Lean Revealed!

He’s always been able to amaze people with some of the near impossible dance steps he had,and the overall fluidity he displayed in his movements to the point where you questioned whether it was even humanly possible. And you would try it at home,and more often than not,(at least I)  you end up on the floor. The moonwalk has been one of MJ’s signature steps,and while it still amazes me at how easily he does it,most people know the basic idea of how the moonwalk is done. But at least until now,I had no idea of how Michael Jackson did the near 45 degree lean in Smooth Criminal. Wires? Trick photography? It just didn’t make sense to me. But now I know.

Smooth Criminal’s lean is one of those moves that isn’t “natural”. By this I mean,well,they cheated. While there weren’t any wires,Michael and his dancers used special shoes and a special trick stage floor to perform the lean. As seen in the diagram above,the shoes had a small wedge shaped hole in the heal. When they needed to do the lean,they would be standing in exact locations on the stage were small pegs would rise up,catch into the hole, holding the performers to the floor and allowing them to lean a lot further than humanly possible. True that they required a lot of strength to be able to perform that lean and recover from it,but that is essentially how the King of Pop blew us away. (Found on Gizmodo)