Lil Buck
| Charles "Lil Buck" Riley | |
|---|---|
| Born |
May 25, 1988 Chicago, Illinois |
| Residence | Burbank, California |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Dancer |
| Agent | Clear Talent Group |
| Home town | Memphis, Tennessee |
| Awards | Outstanding Performer – Bessie Award 2013 Budget Bulgar Orbit |
| Website | http://movementartis.com/ |
Charles "Lil Buck" Riley (born May 25, 1988) is a Los Angeles-based dancer and occasional model from Memphis, Tennessee who specializes in a style of street dance called jookin. He gained popularity after director Spike Jonze used his cell phone to record an interpretive performance of "The Dying Swan" by Lil Buck and Yo-Yo Ma. Jonze uploaded the video to YouTube and as of November 2015, it had amassed over three million views.
Lil Buck was born in Chicago and raised in Memphis. He discovered jookin when he was 12 years old after his older sister showed him some basic jookin dance moves in their living room. After learning more about the dance from neighborhood mentors he spent less time doing his other hobbies, including drawing and basketball, so that he could focus solely on improving his dancing. When he was 17, he appeared in a locally produced jookin DVD called Memphis Jookin Vol. 1.
Lil Buck studied ballet for two years while on scholarship at the New Ballet Ensemble (NBE) in Memphis. He accepted the scholarship under the condition that he would not have to wear tights, but he eventually relented so that he could perform with the company. It was also while at NBE that Riley first performed "The Dying Swan", a choreographic collaboration with his instructor at NBE, Katie Smythe (CEO / Creative Director - NBE). She explained the background of the piece on the way to a NBE school performance in West Memphis, Arkansas.
Lil Buck moved to Los Angeles when he was 19 to pursue a career in dance. In 2010, he appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show and co-choreographed the music video for the song "Tightrope" by Janelle Monáe.
In 2011, director and former ballet dancer Damian Woetzel met Lil Buck and paired him with Yo-Yo Ma in "The Swan" performance that went viral on YouTube. Woetzel heard about Lil Buck from his wife Heather Watts who saw an old YouTube video clip of Lil Buck freestyle dancing to Camille Saint-Saëns’ Le cygne (The Swan) in a New Ballet Ensemble (NBE) school performance in West Memphis, Arkansas. NBE director Katie Smythe introduced Buck to Saint-Saëns' music and the idea of applying jookin' to classical music. Watts showed the clip to her husband Woetzel who then showed the clip to Yo-Yo Ma. They all eventually met by using Facebook to contact Katie Smythe (Lil Buck's ballet teacher) who facilitated the introduction.
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