Reggie Rockstone has said before Michael Jackson did the famous moonwalk dance, great Ghanaian dancers like himself and Adjetey Sowah invented that stylish dance moves which they branded as backslide.

Michael Jackson first performed the dance in public on March 25, 1983, during the television special, Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever, in front of a live audience at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium. The dance became world-famous two months later when the show made its television premiere.

According to Wikipedia, the moonwalk or backslide is a dance move in which the performer glides backwards but their body actions suggest forward motion. The moonwalk is a popping move. Jackson has been credited with renaming the “backslide” to the moonwalk and it became his signature move.

In the words of Ghanaian rapper and dancer Reggie Rockstone, he was friends with Jeffery Daniel, the choreographer for Michael Jackson where he probably picked the dance moves.

In an interview with the Doreen Avio Show on Joy Prime, he stated:

“I often remind people that the moonwalk, or what you call the backslide, was done before Michael Jackson made it popular. Why? because we weren’t focusing on Michael Jackson’s moonwalk and backslide. We were investigating Michael Jackson’s teachers. Jeffrey Daniel is the man’s name. I have a personal friendship with Jeffrey Daniel.

Before Michael Jackson popularized the backslide, individuals like Adjetey Sowah were performing it. It was known as the backslide. There were no white folks there. It is they who refer to it as the moonwalk. We referred to it as a backslide.”

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