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Dance in Film · 1979

Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground) (1979)

The surviving 1979 performance film catches Michael Jackson inside the Jacksons' family line before his Off the Wall solo breakthrough, with the brothers' coordinated disco groove answering the chorus's literal invitation to dance.

Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground) is a 1979 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 1 indexed dance sequence ↓

Where to watch: Free authorized full performance video on The Jacksons' official YouTube channel, verified 2026-08-09: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NgTQrtor_Y. The Midnight Special also maintains a rights-holder upload of its February 2, 1979 broadcast performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s96gFEyuiyQ. Availability may change.

Watch it in full

The complete work, on the rights holder's official channel.

The dance sequences in Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)

1 sequence — what is danced, by whom, and where to find it.

  1. Full-stage synchronized disco performance

    Disco Dance

    Danced by Michael Jackson; Jackie Jackson; Marlon Jackson; Randy Jackson

    Michael holds the lead through the repeated 'let's dance, let's shout' refrain while the brothers move together around him.

    The single continuous performance keeps Michael at the visual center while the brothers answer the beat with coordinated disco groove, making the repeated invitation to dance a family-wide stage action rather than a singer-fronted band shot.

    Watch this sequence · The full film is on YouTube; the link opens at this sequence. One continuous performance is retained rather than manufacturing sub-scenes. The Jacksons' official upload and The Midnight Special rights-holder upload were verified in the historical catalog on 2026-08-09 and returned exact direct-video metadata again on 2026-08-14; the text browser could not fetch the YouTube watch pages themselves. No formal choreographer or edition-specific timestamp is asserted.

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Poster artwork and title data from TMDB. This site uses TMDB and the TMDB APIs but is not endorsed, certified, or otherwise approved by TMDB.

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