Is Michael Jackson’s Famous Gravity-Defying Dance Move Real? Here’s How it Was Done

There’s no debating that Michael Jackson was one of the greatest entertainers of all time. His songs are timeless classics and his dance moves are something that others have tried to duplicate for years.

From his iconic moonwalk to his robotic gestures to his toe stand, many of MJ’s fans have tried it all. But there’s one move that most people don’t attempt because they’re not sure the laws of gravity allow it, and that is the King of Pop‘s “Smooth Criminal” lean.

At one point in the music video for the 1987 hit, Jackson is joined by four other dancers who perform the move in which they lean from the ankle at a 45-degree angle, while keeping their bodies straight and their feet in the same spot.

Many have deemed the move impossible, calling it an optical illusion. But is that correct or was Jackson able to pull it off somehow? Here’s the answer to that.

Was the ‘Smooth Criminal’ bend real?

So did Jackson and his backup dancers really do that lean? The answer is yes, but with the help of some special footwear and a stage mechanism that locked their heels into a peg. It’s been reported that Jackson and the other dancers wore those special shoes because they wouldn’t have been able to do the move without them.

In the Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine, neurosurgeons Nishant S. Yagnick, Sandeep Mohindra, and Professor Manjul Tripathi, from the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in Chandigarh, India, broke down how the dancers achieved the biomechanically impossible dance move.

“Several MJ fans have tried to copy this move and failed, often injuring themselves in their endeavors. Most trained dancers with strong core strength will reach a maximum of 25 to 30 degrees of forward bending while performing this action,” the medical experts explained. “MJ pulled off a gravity-defying 45-degree move that seems unearthly to any witness.

“If a person were to attempt the ‘Smooth Criminal’ lean, they would notice that the bulk of the strain to strike the pose moves to the Achilles tendon in each ankle, rather than the erector spinae muscles of the back. This allows for only a very limited degree of forward bend, even for someone matching Michael’s strong athletic abilities. Michael got the extra degrees of tilt thanks to some fancy footwear. A V-shaped slit in the bottom of each heel of his spats slotted onto a strong nail or ‘hitch member’ driven into the ground, allowing the dancer to pivot and lean further forward, for the gravity-defying move.”

The neurosurgeons added, “The triangular slot could engage a hitch member (a metallic peg, which emerged from the stage floor at just the right time), allowing the dancer to obtain the right amount of extra support to be able to lean forward beyond physiological limits.”

Choreographer says Jackson gave it harder than anyone else every time he danced

Choreographer Frank Gatson Jr., who has worked with Beyoncé, En Vogue, and Toni Braxton, got his start as a dancer in Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal” video.

Gatson spoke to Time about that gig and recalled, “The first time I met Michael was when I danced in the video for ‘Smooth Criminal’ … That was my first job in L.A. as a dancer. And it was the most amazing job — I made $10,000 because the job was for three months. Just the dance section. Isn’t that something?

“There were, like, 40 dancers on the job. You know the scene in ‘Smooth Criminal’ when he gets on the table? I’m standing right there because they wanted me to spot him, so if he fell, I would catch him. And he would never fall.”

Gatson added, “Most people, when they’re rehearsing a dance movement, they don’t do it full-out. Michael would always do everything to the fullest in rehearsal. He would do it like he was onstage, every time. And as a dancer, you would be like, ‘Why is he doing it that hard?’ Every chromosome worked the minute he moved … He danced like every chromosome was working right there … he gave everything he had.”