Return to Revisions

There is no known inventor of the moonwalk. The moonwalk the a shuffle-step performed backwards and repeatedly, to simulate one walking back. Shuffle-steps have been one of the key pieces of African-American dance and are noted as appearing in the cakewalk. Being able to perform the shuffle-step in all directions is key for the cakewalk. However, the notion of slipping so that one slides backwards has to do with polished dancefloors. Cakewalk being performed on polished dancefloors allowed movement that would betray the apparent footwork. This development would lead to many of the animal dances (turkey-trot, foxtrot, bunnyhug, grizzly bear) that were introduced at the beginning of the 20th century.