Former Solid Gold Dancer and one of the guys who taught Michael Jackson the moonwalk.

I didn't invent the moonwalk "backslide" Casper and I (Cooley Jackson) taught Michael The moonwalk Only.

To his credit, Jackson has never personally claimed authorship of the distinctive dance step. The Gloved One says he originally learned the moonwalk (or "backslide," as it is perhaps more accurately also known) from dancers Jeffrey Daniel, Geron "Casper" Candidate and Derek "Cooley" Jackson, all of whom had done time on "Soul Train," the pioneering dance show that premiered in Chicago in 1970. Daniel (who would later choreograph Jackson in music videos for songs like "Bad" and "Smooth Criminal") is sometimes listed as the first performer to moonwalk on television, when Shalamar, the R&B trio of which Daniel was a founding member, appeared on the British TV program "Top of the Pops" in 1982 — almost a full year before Jackson's turn on the Motown special.