Black and White

I was going to title this entry RIP, Michael Jackson--but no, resting isn't right. The man found his genius in motion, and that's how I'd like to commemorate him.

As a dancer he followed in the steps of greats like Astaire and Kelly and Hepburn (who began her career as a ballerina).

The common marker of the jazz dancers' code: a black shoe--a loafer or jazz oxford, often patent--worn with white socks (or formally, with spats).

The white gap between trouser hem and shoe served to disarticulate the foot from the body so that its lightning-fast swoops, slides and slams registered clearly through its trace, like a hockey puck at half-speed, banking on ice.

Jackson is all over YouTube. Forget all the rest of it and watch the man dance, and see the thing he could command, utterly.