Dance in Film · 1997
Ghosts (1997)
Stan Winston’s 38-minute short turns Michael Jackson’s confrontation with Normal Valley into a horror musical whose ghoul ensemble makes dance the Maestro’s direct rebuttal to the town demanding that he disappear.
Ghosts is a 1997 dance film centred on ballroom and social dance. For dancers, it's a chance to see the style performed on screen — the phrasing, partnering, and musicality that the same dances carry onto a real floor.
Jump to the 3 indexed dance sequences ↓
Where to watch: Authorized short-form video on MichaelJackson.com and Apple Music; no current authorized public stream of the complete 38-minute film was verified as of 2026-08-09.
Featured clip
An excerpt — one number from the full work.
The dance sequences in Ghosts
3 sequences — what is danced, by whom, and where to find it.
CGI skeleton solo
Commercial / Industry DanceDanced by Michael Jackson · Choreography Michael Jackson; Travis Payne; Barry Lather
The Maestro becomes a dancing skeleton whose Jackson-like phrasing remains recognizable even without his human body.
Motion capture lets Jackson's unmistakable movement survive a complete bodily transformation, joining character animation, effects, and pop choreography in one performance.
Watch this sequence · This sequence is on YouTube as a standalone clip. Festival de Cannes lists the 1997 short at 38 minutes; contemporary commentary describes a 39-minute cut. The official Michael Jackson YouTube channel currently offers only a shortened version, so no full-film timestamp or deep link is asserted. Michael Jackson, Travis Payne, and Barry Lather have supported production-level choreography contributions, but the opened sources do not allocate individual passages among them.
Maestro and the ghost family dance
Commercial / Industry DanceDanced by Michael Jackson; ghost ensemble · Choreography Michael Jackson; Travis Payne; Barry Lather
The mansion fills with boogying Victorian ghosts and Jackson leads the otherworldly ensemble through an elaborate production routine.
The first large-scale number converts the Maestro's supernatural family into a tightly coordinated commercial screen-dance troupe, making dance the weapon in his scare-off with the Mayor.
Watch this sequence · This sequence is on YouTube as a standalone clip. Festival de Cannes lists the 1997 short at 38 minutes; contemporary commentary describes a 39-minute cut. The official Michael Jackson YouTube channel currently offers only a shortened version, so no full-film timestamp or deep link is asserted. Michael Jackson, Travis Payne, and Barry Lather have supported production-level choreography contributions, but the opened sources do not allocate individual passages among them.
Possessed Mayor dance
Commercial / Industry DanceDanced by Michael Jackson · Choreography Michael Jackson; Travis Payne; Barry Lather
For roughly three minutes, the Mayor's padded, prosthetic-covered body suddenly moves with Jackson's unmistakable precision.
The film's comic reversal makes its rigid authority figure move like Jackson, using a sustained dance solo to turn possession into narrative payoff.
Watch this sequence · This sequence is on YouTube as a standalone clip. Festival de Cannes lists the 1997 short at 38 minutes; contemporary commentary describes a 39-minute cut. The official Michael Jackson YouTube channel currently offers only a shortened version, so no full-film timestamp or deep link is asserted. Michael Jackson, Travis Payne, and Barry Lather have supported production-level choreography contributions, but the opened sources do not allocate individual passages among them.
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