The Man Behind the Throne Page #2

- Mm-hm.

And breathe in it and then move.

- Yes, so we can enjoy it.

- Yeah.

For him, a dance is a scene.

He makes people want to find out

who their characters are -

what is your name?

Where did you come from?

What is your story?

He lets people know that

no matter where you are on stage,

you are a vital part of his picture.

I had no thoughts about dance

being any part of my life.

It was really about theatre.

It really wasn't until I was 25 when

I really got hooked into the dance.

And once I took my first

dance class,

it was like

those endorphins started flowing

and it was like a drug hitting me,

and it was like, "Wow!"

The education I had had

in the theatre

gave me all of that

internal workings.

I would put the role on,

I would put the character on.

And that's how

I got the role in Beat It.

All the other guys

who would come into the room

came in looking like dancers.

And I came in

looking like the character

that they were looking for -

the leader of a gang.

- Beat it

- Beat it

- Beat it

- Beat it

No-one wants to be defeated...

I assisted the choreographer,

Michael Peters,

for Beat It and Thriller.

As the assistant,

you cleaned everything.

And I was considered,

like, THE best assistant around,

because I was crazy.

I made every finger precise,

every head precise,

everywhere you looked precise,

every movement precise.

So when it became my turn

to actually create

and be the choreographer,

that was one of the things that

I felt I really wanted to do.

So, Annie, are you OK?

Are you OK, Annie?

Annie, are you OK?

Will you tell us that you're OK?

There's a sign in the window

That he struck you

a crescendo, Annie

He came into your apartment

And left the bloodstains

on the carpet

And then you ran into the bedroom

You were struck down

It was your doom...

I remember we worked hard

on that precision part.

The moves were extremely tight.

I do remember one time

Vince came in and said,

"You know, now, we need

to work a little harder here

"because it's not really

as sharp as it needs to be."

And Michael asked me, "Are these

really the best dancers in LA?"

It's like the gauntlet

being thrown down, you know?

You'd better show

that you are the best.

- Annie, are you OK?

- Are you OK, Annie?

Ow!

- Annie, are you OK?

- I don't know

- Will you tell us that you're OK?

- I don't know

- There's a sign in the window

- I don't know

- That he struck you a crescendo, Annie

- I don't know

- He came into your apartment

- I don't know

- And left the bloodstains on the carpet

- I don't know why, baby

And then you ran into the bedroom

You were struck down

It was your doom...

Vince really approached this...

giving us the assignment.

All the dancers were

asked to come up with characters,

like names of characters,

and have a backstory

so that there was a reason

why we were in the setting

that was given to us.

He brought, to a dance job,

a theatrical storytelling point

of view, not just dance technique.

Dag gone it, baby

- There's a sign in the window

- Dag gone it, baby

- That he struck you a crescendo, Annie

- Hoo! Hoo!

He came into your apartment.

This is the area that I grew up in.

And this was a very conservative,

fairly, you know, repressed,

depressed area.

We lived sort of

on the wrong side of the tracks,

but close enough that

you could smell what was going on

on the other side, you know?

I guess a little bit like

Elvis Presley, actually.

Where he could...

He was on the white side

and the blacks were on the other.

With us, it wasn't a racial thing.

But I kept wandering

into those other little worlds.

Wow. Bizarre.

It's so small.

Can you imagine seven of us

living in that house?

If you want.

That was my bedroom,

up there in that top window.

After going to Catholic school,

we would sit and be so scared

because the nuns would tell us -

we're gonna turn right -

the nuns would tell us that

the end of the world was coming,

and we would sit and cry.

- Hello.

- It's good to see you.

- How are you?

- Nice to see you. Fine, thank you.

Our sisters would be thrilled

that you're here.

- Oh, they would be.

- Oh, my gosh. A long time ago.

- 'Cause we've been here a long time.

- I was here a VERY long time ago.

- We used to call it BrookHEAVEN.

- Oh.

Instead of Brookhaven,

they called it Brookheaven.

Good afternoon, boys and girls.

Good afternoon, Mrs Damson.

God bless you.

Good. God bless you too,

boys and girls.

We have a group of boys

that has a hip-hop club.

Oh, my gosh.

Some of them might be in here.

May I see the hip-hop boys

that are in the third grade?

Come and identify...

identify yourselves.

- This is Mr Paterson.

- Hi. How are you guys?

One of his jobs

is as a choreographer.

Do you know what choreographers do?

A choreographer is somebody

who makes up the dances.

Like, I made up many dances

for Michael Jackson...

My favourite singer?

Really? Yeah.

I'm the guy in Beat It who has the

little knife fight and all of that.

- That was me.

- Oh, yeah!

Yeah, that was me, so...

And what do you do, like,

little routines and stuff?

Yes.

We didn't have music class

and we didn't have...

All the dance that we had

was square dance.

Did you have gym outside?

- We didn't have gym at all.

- Oh.

My father taught social dance

in different places -

the jitterbug and the cha-cha -

and taught me

when I was a little kid.

My parents loved music

and that's kind of the way it was.

And they were both very young,

so, you know...

we kind of all grew up together.

He kind of had to take over,

you know, when his father left.

And it was a shame, because he was

only a 13-year-old boy,

but he tried to help me

as much as he could

with the raising of children,

you know?

Of course, we put

a lot of responsibility on him.

Tried not to,

but it just happens, you know?

- Yeah.

- But, uh...

No, he was... he was a good boy.

I thought he'd be an actor.

I thought he'd be more into acting,

because that's what they did,

you know?

And he'd dress up the kids

and my nieces

in their different little outfits

and they'd all perform.

I was an artist.

I didn't know what kind of artist,

but I knew I was an artist.

And I knew that there was

nothing in this area

that would ever give me

an opportunity

to... to understand what that meant,

that driving force inside of me.

You got the right one, baby

You know when it's right...

Oh, we've done

many, many, many, many commercials.

I can't even remember, so many.

- Diet Pepsi

- Alright

- Uh-huh, uh-huh

- Uh-huh, uh-huh...

And on the set,

I would introduce him to the person

and then walk away and let him

do whatever he wanted to do.

I don't think I ever

made any comment about his work.

It was always brilliant and special.

He has an unbelievable way

with people.

He had an unbelievable way

with Michael.

Michael Jackson actually

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