For 40 years, on Halloween, it’s been almost mandatory to try out the Thriller moves at some party or flashmob. Everyone thinks that “Michael” created the signature moves, but who knows if the truth is that it refers to another Michael, not Jackson? Yes, the King of Pop popularized the moonwalk, but his classic moves were invented by choreographer Michael Peters, who was known in life as the “Balanchine of music videos.”

Peters has not received enough credit for his invaluable contribution to Pop Culture. In addition to ALL of Michael Jackson‘s most important videos (and consequently his concerts), we can safely say that the look of the 1980s owes 90% to this dancer/actor/singer who died 30 years ago of AIDS.

When Jackson was working on the Thriller videos, he turned to Broadway’s finest for visual help, and that was none other than Michael Peters, who had already won a Tony for Dreamgirls and had worked with Donna Summers when she released Love To Love You Baby in the late 1970s.

Born in Brooklyn, Michael fell in love with Broadway musicals and movies when he saw West Side Story and began to dedicate himself to dance, especially modern dance, working with the biggest names of the time, such as Talley Beatty, Alvin Ailey, Bernice Johnson, and Fred Benjamin. He was in the casts of several hit musicals, establishing a partnership with Debbie Allen and gaining prestige.

Always a pioneer and open to new challenges, he choreographed shows for artists such as Diana Ross and Donna Summer, quickly understanding the dynamic between singing and dancing, which he mastered so well on stage. In 1979, he had great success with the musical Comin’ Uptown, a version with an all-black cast in an adaptation of Dickens’s classic Christmas Carol, starring Gregory Hines.

When Dreamgirls hit the stage in 1982, the musical became a hit and Peters won the Tony Award for Best Choreographer. Hollywood started calling him. Not for the movies, which at the time despised musicals, but for MTV, which was moving a new generation that wanted music videos: basically a few-minute musical with their favorite artists.

The success of Dreamgirls also led Michael Jackson to choose Peters for the video for Billie Jean. It was so successful that Beat It and, of course, Thriller followed. In the latter two, Michael Peters makes small appearances, but in Beat It he was more prominent.

For this collaboration, Peters won several American Video and MTV awards, becoming in great demand. He worked with Lionel Ritchie on both Hello and with Pat Benatar on the iconic Love is a Battlefield. Other artists who collaborated with him included Diana Ross, Billy Joel, Earth Wind and Fire, New Kids on the Block, and the Jacksons 5, among others.

In the cinema, it was Michael Peters who worked with Angela Bassett on her acclaimed composition for Tina Turner in What’s Love Got To Do With It, but he also signed the choreography for Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit, Sarafina!, The Mambo Kings and The Five Heartbeats, among others.

In addition to his versatility, virtuosity, and talent for dancing and singing, Peters is remembered for always being able to get the best out of his artists, even those who had no dancing technique. To do this, he focused on the sounds of the instruments instead of counting steps, inverting the techniques of classical and modern ballet. As he said, it is in the melody that the emotion of the movement lies, not in the counting.

He passed away in November 1994, at only 46 years old. Since today there is so much talk about the steps he created, here is my tribute to the genius: Michael Peters.

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