Michael Jackson has a God given talent. But of course he learned from other when he was a little kid. Back in the days, the J5 days, he used to stare at stars like James Brown and Jackie Wilson, whenthey performed on stage. He tried to learn from them, what was the magic that they had , to make the people in the audience crazy. Michael looked and he saw James Brown throwing his Mike and grabbing it again like it was no big deal, he saw jackie Wilson doing the slide and standing back on his feet in no time… Michael memorized all these steps and  tried them himself. He took those people as an inspiration. And it did Michael jackson good, look where it brought him ! It made him even a bigger star than his idols at the time.