Like all of you, I spent the weekend remembering the genius that was Michael Jackson and reading some lovely tributes . This heart-squeezing picture of a very young Michael Jackson in a garden is from the Guardian, and accompanies a piece by Germaine Greer which is one of the most beautiful tributes to Michael Jackson that I have read. Here is an excerpt, but be warned, serious tearing up ahead._________________
Ever since Dionysos danced ahead of his horde of bloody-footed maenads across the rocky highlands of prehistoric Greece, dance and song have been the province of boys. Like Orpheus, Jackson was destroyed by his fans, whose adulation and adoration prevented his living in any kind of normal society. The creativity ebbed away day by day. He became a parody of himself. It is time now to forget all that and salute the miraculous boy who will triumph over death as Dionysos did, becoming immortal through his art.
Nowhere will his contribution be more obvious and his influence more strongly felt than in the world of dance. No choreographer of the last 30 years has been unaware of Jackson's achievement. He rewrote the vocabulary of dance for everyone, from kids competing in talent shows to the royal ballets of Europe.
If the dance establishment did not often acknowledge his influence it was because there was no need. His shapes, his moves were everywhere.
Nijinsky and Nureyev also died young. They, too, were transcendent dancing boys, but they chose to interpret the choreography supplied to them by others.
By contrast Michael Jackson's art was astonishingly innovative. No one could dance like him, until he showed them how, and then they were never as good as he was. His concept of the dance was utterly 20th century, extravagantly multi-dimensional, and not in the least middle class.
Nijinsky may have been the greatest Spectre de la Rose, Nureyev the greatest Corsair, but these two candles pale in the light of Jackson's blazing star. The surprise is not that we have lost him, but that we ever had him at all.
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Photograph of Michael Jackson: Henry Diltz/Corbis, via the Guardian.
2 comments:
It is only a shame so few people stood up and publicly supported him towards the end of his life, when he perhaps would have most appreciated knowing his worth in the pocketed hearts of fans so ever eager to cast out one currency of fame for the next.
From Oris:
Shame I got here late. Michael's my hero hence I hate how Greer started this piece. She ended it beautifully so I can forgive her. I'm writing a tribute and I hope I'd be through this August.
RIP KING.
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