Legendary choreographer Buddha Stretch recalls the day he taught hip-hop dance to Michael Jackson
To mark the 50th anniversary of hip-hop, Stretch also talks about the evolution of the artform
This month marks the 50th anniversary of hip-hop and it's not just a celebration of the music, but also the culture, including dance.
For decades, Buddha Stretch has been a key player in hip-hop dance. He began performing in the early '80s and has worked with everyone from Eric B. & Rakim, to Mariah Carey and Will Smith.
In 1992, Stretch helped choreograph Michael Jackson's video for Remember The Time, along with Fatima Robinson. "It was — after the birth of my daughters — the greatest experience of my life to be in a room with the King of Pop," he tells Q's Tom Power in an interview.
"For him to be asking questions about this dance that my father used to kick me out of the house for was just amazing to me because I'm like, 'Wow, Michael Jackson is interested in what I'm doing.' … He was such a student and astute professional of what he does that it was inspiring to watch because he's at the top of the food chain, yet he's working like he's still at the bottom of the food chain."
As one of the best dancers of all time, Jackson was able to pick up the steps right away, despite being relatively unfamiliar with hip-hop dance.
"He was great," Stretch says. "Normally when you're teaching someone choreography or a step, you're teaching them by count. Michael Jackson didn't learn by count — you had to put the step in rhythm and you had to explain it in rhythm. And once you explained it in rhythm, he could catch it really fast."
We were trying to get [Michael Jackson] to come to a club in disguise.- Buddha Stretch
Stretch says Jackson was especially curious about hip-hop dance battles, asking both him and Robinson a lot of questions about what it was like to see one in person.
"He had never seen one, so we were trying to get him to come to a club in disguise," recalls the choreographer. "We tried to get him to put on some baggy jeans and a hoodie, a baseball cap and some Timberlands or sneakers, and just come to the club with his face concealed. No one would know and he could actually see and experience what that was like. We almost got him there, but just before, his security and management talked him out of it."
Jackson's security and management teams didn't believe that Stretch and Robinson wouldn't tell people that the King of Pop was out at a club.
"We were trying to explain, like, 'You don't have to let us know that you're there. Just show up. No one's gonna believe that Michael Jackson's in a hoodie and a baseball cap with baggy pants on in the club,'" Stretch says.
"No one would recognize him. He could put a scarf over his face or whatever. No one would believe that that's Mike. And he didn't have to let anyone know. But they took it like we would let people know, and the paparazzi would show up and it would be a nightmare. They didn't get it, so they talked him out of it and he never got to come."
Stretch says the strength and beauty of hip-hop dance is that it's built through interaction with other people, which is hard to experience authentically if you're a global superstar with no anonymity.
"It's exciting because you're dancing with people," he says. "You're not in your house, dancing in the mirror, trying to come up with something. It's a social connection with the music and the people that you're around."
The full interview with Buddha Stretch is available on our podcast, Q with Tom Power. He also talks about the development of hip-hop dance and how he approaches his work from a Buddhist standpoint. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
Interview with Buddha Stretch produced by Ben Edwards.
For more stories about the 50th anniversary of hip-hop — including Tom Power's conversations with some of the artists who witnessed and shaped the genre — check out Hip-Hop at 50 here.
