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Zaldy, the trendy costume designer for Michael Jackson’s aptly named “This is It” tour, speaks in the film’s DVD-extras about the custom loafers he created for the singer-dancer.
The designer describes how he knocked off the cut and dimension of [hundreds of] loafers that [Jackson told Zaldy], “I can dance in.”
Michael Jackson was a brilliantly gifted songwriter and singer. But it’s MJ’s dancing that moves millions to idolize him.
Jackson’s sequined shoe, shown above, is paired with a set of ballet slippers worn by the equally brilliant (and equally doomed) Vaslav Nijinsky in “Spectre de la Rose” in 1911. That’s one hundred years ago. Sadly, the wear and tear on the super-gifted has not improved much in the last century. I refer not to their soles, but to their souls.
Shoes make the dancer.
Photographs of the Nijinsky shoes come from Curatorial Assistance, Pasadena, who represent the sale of the Nijinsky family collection of rare of costumes, artifacts and personal memorabilia of Vaslav Nijinsky. And Curatorial Assistance Traveling Exhibitions is touring an exhibition of Henry Leutwyler’s images in “Neverland Lost: A portrait of Michael Jackson.“
- A dancer’s shoes
- MJ’s gold trousers
- Michael Jackson, not depressed, not dying, in “This is It“
- MJ dances
Both photos by Henry Leutwyler, courtesy of Curatorial Assistance.