One photo of you, your baby or your pet dances Smooth Criminal: the 2026 TikTok remix routine or Michael Jackson's anti-gravity lean, right in the place the photo was taken.
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0/1 photos
One photo of one person, baby or pet, standing head to feet and facing the camera. Whoever is in it becomes the only dancer.
Video settings
No prompt needed. Only upload photos of yourself or people who agreed to be featured; celebrity photos and film stills aren't allowed.
The Smooth Criminal dance trend is the 2026 wave of TikTok routines set to remixes of Michael Jackson's 1988 song: arm swings, knee lifts and hands at the cap or forehead, danced solo, in pairs and by whole families. A Smooth Criminal AI dance puts the solo routine, or the Michael Jackson Smooth Criminal lean from the same song, onto one photo of you, your baby or your pet.
Two remix sounds carried it. Duo videos to an afrobeats remix took off in late July, captioned "nuevo trend"; that sound alone has about 435,800 TikTok videos. In August Cadel and Mia posted a second remix, and from mid-September a solo routine credited as "dc @carlowrush" spread on it. That solo routine is the one the remix version here follows.
The lean is far older. In the 1988 music video, part of the film Moonwalker, Michael Jackson tips forward from his heels well past the point where anyone would fall; on stage it was done with special shoes that hooked onto pegs in the floor, and a lean-shoe explainer by @official.joemjj has about 132 million TikTok views. Impersonators still post it, and the AI version hands it to people who have never practised it.
The AI side grew out of how hard both moves are. Parents put the remix on baby photos, and tutorials went out captioned "You've been hit by AI dance", a nod to the song's "you've been hit by a smooth criminal" line.
Michael Jackson releases Smooth Criminal as a single from Bad; its music video, part of the film Moonwalker, has the anti-gravity lean and about 1.38 billion YouTube views today.
MJ impersonator @michael.jackton.official posts "The secret of Zerogravity", one side-on take of the lean; it shows about 184 million TikTok views on November 5, 2026.
@jaaann_gaalvez posts a duo "nuevo trend" video to an afrobeats remix, an early breakout post of the remix wave, now about 5.9 million TikTok views.
A CapCut AI baby template set to the remix goes up; on November 5 it shows 514,830 uses.
@carlowrush posts a new routine on Cadel and Mia's remix (about 4.3 million views); dancers copy it solo as "dc @carlowrush", and @katy_carrdona's solo take on September 21 reaches about 23.6 million.
Dates and counts: TikTok posts and sound pages, the CapCut template page and YouTube, read on November 5, 2026.
Two different dances, each from its own take. Pick one in the generator; both work from the same photo.
Remix routine · 15s
This is the dance from the 2026 TikTok wave: one unbroken take of the solo routine, danced to a phone set on the floor, so the video looks up at the dancer the whole time. It plays the remix the routine was danced to, and its eight moves are broken down below.
Dance the remix
MJ lean · 15s
Pick it for the Michael Jackson Smooth Criminal AI dance: the dancer stands side-on, reaches up as if putting on a hat, tips forward into the anti-gravity lean and holds it for about three seconds, comes back up, points and finishes with a high kick. It plays the original song.
Do the leanThe remix version is the solo routine in one 15-second take. These are its eight moves in order, at the second each one starts; the AI keeps that order and that timing.
10:00–0:01An arm swings out wide, then both forearms cross over the head as one knee comes up.
20:01–0:03One hand taps the cap brim while the knees bend, then that arm shoots out to the side.
30:03–0:04A side-on step into a wide stance, then both fists come up in front of the face and hold for a beat.
40:04–0:06Feet wide, one hand holds the side of the head while the other arm hangs out low and loose.
50:06–0:08One arm points straight out, the body turns side-on and drops into a sideways lunge.
60:08–0:10A few steps toward the phone with the hands at the belt, then both arms fling out as one knee lifts high.
70:10–0:13The longest stretch: knees wide, a loose bounce on the beat and a foot flicked out to the side.
80:13–0:15A quick spin with both arms thrown up, landing on one leg with a hand on top of the cap.
Looking for Michael Jackson's zombie dance from Thriller instead? It has its own page. Thriller AI dance
Choose the remix or the lean, add one photo, and the AI dances the whole take. There is a single part, so there is nothing to cast or swap.
Photo 1Dancer
Becomes the dancer in the remix or the lean. Their face, hair, build and outfit stay; the moves, the camera angle and the music come from the version you pick.
Works well
Standing, head to shoes in frame
A cap or a hat on, for the brim taps
A baby standing on their own feet
A pet with its whole body in viewAvoid
Two people in one photo
Sitting, with the legs out of sight
A face-only selfie
A side profile, even for the leanChoose the dance, add the photo
Choose the remix routine or the MJ lean, then add one standing photo of the dancer.
Click Generate
The button shows the exact price for the version and resolution before anything runs.
Post it
Download the vertical video with the music already on it and post it as it is to TikTok, Reels or Shorts.
Neither the parking garage nor the white room comes with the dance: the video takes place wherever your photo was taken.
Anyone who can stand still for one photo. Four ideas for who to put in it, each with a caption ready to post.
Caption: You've been hit by… a two-year-old
The AI baby version is the biggest AI side of this trend: a toddler doing the cap taps and knee lifts lands as a joke in one second.
Caption: POV: the dog heard the Smooth Criminal remix first
Pets dance it upright on their hind legs, so the arm moves turn into paw waves. Cats do it the same way.
Caption: Annie, are you okay? The groom is.
The lean works best as a surprise: the groom stands still, then tips forward further than anyone can, right where the first dance happened.
Caption: She doesn't dance. She does now.
Best as a birthday or group-chat surprise; ask before you use someone else's photo.
Motion Control, which this page runs, needs no prompt: the take brings the moves, the camera and the sound. To run the dance in a tool that takes a video reference instead, attach the take as @Video1 and the photo as @Image1 and paste the prompt for the version; there the words decide which file brings the moves and which brings the dancer. These Michael Jackson dance AI prompts are written for these two takes.
Reference clip
Prompt length 1162
Use @Video1 as the motion reference and @Image1 as the character. The person in @Image1 performs the solo routine from @Video1 in the place @Image1 was taken: keep their face, hair, body shape and outfit, and keep that room, its floor and its light.
Copy the moves in @Video1's order and on its beats: an arm swing into both forearms crossed over the head with one knee up; a hand tapping the cap brim, then an arm shot out to the side; both fists held up in front of the face; a hand at the side of the head in a wide stance; an arm pointed straight out while turning side-on into a sideways lunge; a few steps forward, then both arms thrown out with a high knee; a wide, loose bounce with a foot flicked to the side; a spin that lands on one leg with a hand on top of the head.
Take the moves, the camera and the timing from @Video1, never its dancer or clothes: keep its low camera on the floor looking up, its single unbroken take, its timing and its original music. Keep the whole body in frame from head to shoes. If @Image1 wears no cap, the hand touches the hair: do not add a cap. No second dancer, no parking garage, no parked cars, no text or logos.Name the moves in the take's order
Listing the moves in @Video1's order ties each one to its beat, so none is skipped or swapped.
Say where the dance happens
"In the place @Image1 was taken" keeps the garage or the white room of @Video1 out from behind your photo.
Write the no-hat line
Both takes touch a cap or a hat brim; "do not add a cap" keeps a bare head bare.
Don't name Michael Jackson as the person
Asking for MJ pulls the face toward him; name the move, the anti-gravity lean, and let @Image1 stay the dancer.
Don't ask for the white suit
Costume words override @Image1's outfit. If you want the look, wear it in the photo.
Don't ask for a second dancer
One photo is one dancer; a duo prompt makes the tool invent a second face or blend two into yours.
Not this
Make the person in my photo do Michael Jackson's Smooth Criminal lean in a white suit and fedora.
Write this
Use @Video1 as the motion reference and @Image1 as the character: the person in @Image1 does @Video1's anti-gravity lean in their own room and clothes, body straight from heels to head, feet flat, with @Video1's camera, timing and music kept.
The first asks for a celebrity and a costume, so the face and the outfit drift toward both. The second moves your photo and leaves who you are alone.
The four things these two takes ask of a photo, and what to change when a video shows one of them.
Every template works the same way: add your photos, press Generate and get a shareable video without writing a prompt.
View all effectsFAQ
No, each video costs credits. The price depends on the version and the resolution you pick, and the Generate button shows it before you start. New accounts get 10 credits when they sign up.
Michael Jackson's Smooth Criminal. The remix version keeps the remix the routine was danced to, and the lean version keeps the original song. The music stays on your video as it is; it can't be swapped for another track.
Yes. "You've been hit by…" is the lyric people caption these videos with, and the AI baby tutorials went out as "You've been hit by AI dance". It is the same remix dance listed move by move above.
The checklist in the how-to section shows the photos that work. You don't need a costume: the clothes in the photo are the clothes in the video and nothing is added, so for the MJ look, wear a light suit and a hat when you take it.
Yes. Use a baby who can stand on their own, or a pet with its whole body in the photo; pets dance it upright on their hind legs. Videos from this page stay private on every plan, so baby and family photos never reach the public gallery.
No. This dance moves one photo with one dancer in it; a second person is not supported. For a pair, each of you makes your own video.
In the remix the dancer faces the camera most of the time, so the face reads clearly. The lean is filmed side-on, and for most of it the face is small and turned away, so it looks less like you there. The photo checklist in the how-to section shows what helps.
No to both. Oeneo AI is not affiliated with Michael Jackson or his estate, and your video shows only the dancer from your photo: never MJ, and never the performer in the take.
None of them. It runs in the browser on a phone or a computer, there is no prompt to write, and the moves come with the version you pick, so nobody has to learn the routine or practise the lean.
Thriller AI dance, on Oeneo AI's Halloween page, puts your photo into a zombie street dance and keeps that clip's street, zombies and sound. Here the dance happens in your own photo's place, to Smooth Criminal, as the remix routine or the lean.
Yes, with Motion Control in the video tools above: upload a dance clip of your own and one photo, and the person in the photo copies that clip's moves. This page keeps the two Smooth Criminal takes ready, so you don't need one here.
Remix or lean
Pick the remix or the lean, add one standing photo, and get a vertical dance video with the music on it.