Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly were far and away better dancers than Michael Jackson. Jackson is revered as one of history’s most popular, influential, and entertaining dancers, so no one should take my statement as a slight against him; however, it should put into perspective how great Astaire and Kelly were.
Jackson was first and foremost a singer. Dancing was important to him, but in the bigger picture, dance was something to accentuate his singing and performing. He did not invent moves so much as he introduced them to the masses and popularized them. He was heavily influenced by Sammy Davis Jr’s Tap and James Brown’s Soul dancing. He hired the Nicholas Brothers to teach him Tap. He hired local B-boys to teach him Breakdance moves. He hired Jeffrey Daniel to teach him the backslide, which became better known as the Moonwalk (which itself had be executed by Tap dancers since at least the 1950s). He mostly left choreography to other people, such as Michael Peters who performed in and did most of the iconic choreography for ‘Beat It’ and ‘Thriller’ (in ‘Beat It’, Peters is the Black gang leader in the white outfit and sunglasses).
Astaire and Kelly were dancers and choreographers first – singers, actors, and whatever else next. The popular solo and synchronized group dances of their era were Tap, Jazz, and Swing, and they excelled at all of them, especially Tap. Tap in its day was pretty much what Hip Hop is today.
In addition to being an outstanding solo dancer, Astaire distinguished himself by being one of history’s best partner dancers. His name is synonymous with Ballroom dance. Even 70+ years after their heyday, the term “Fred & Ginger” has standalone first name recognition the way Cher, Madonna, Beyonce, and Kanye do.
In addition to the popular mainstream dances of his time, Gene Kelly was also a classically trained dancer. If you watch his films, the Ballet, Contemporary, and Lyrical training is evident. Despite his grace and skill, he had a reputation as being a very athletic and masculine dancer and spent his life as an ambassador for dance, especially trying to broaden appeal among males. He definitely carried a grudge against anyone who accused him of “being a sissy” for dancing.
If you had Astaire, Kelly, and Jackson all in their physical prime and had them train together for a year, Jackson could dance maybe half of what Astaire and Kelly could do. Astaire and Kelly could dance about 99% of what Jackson did.
Another way of looking at it is, if you took away Michael Jackson’s dancing, he would still have been an international superstar pop singer. If you took away Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly’s dancing, they’d probably be minor footnotes in Hollywood history relying on their singing and acting.
