Memphis street dancer Charles Riley, known as Lil Buck, has brought his signature jookin style to Oxford University in a new collaboration titled 1776. The performance, staged at the newly opened Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities, features young dancers from ZooNation Youth Company and Oxford's Body Politic Youth, and reexamines the founding of the United States and its unfulfilled promise of equality.
From Viral Sensation to Oxford Fellow
Lil Buck first gained global attention in 2011 when a video of him dancing to Saint-Saëns' The Swan alongside cellist Yo-Yo Ma went viral. His jookin style, characterized by gliding footwork and gravity-defying movements, draws comparisons to ballet. Since then, he has performed with Madonna, Alicia Keys, and Mikhail Baryshnikov, and worked with Versace, Spike Lee, and Cirque du Soleil.
Now, he has been appointed a visiting fellow at Oxford's Schwarzman Centre, a £185m facility funded by US private equity billionaire Stephen Schwarzman. The centre houses humanities faculties, the Institute for Ethics in AI, and performance spaces, aiming to bridge academic disciplines and artistic practice.
Breaking Down the 'Broken Promise' of Equality
The performance 1776 looks back 250 years to the US Declaration of Independence, questioning the ideal that 'all men are created equal.' According to Lil Buck, this was 'a broken promise,' as freedom for some meant oppression for others, particularly under slavery. The choreography contrasts rigid, authoritarian movements with looser, individualistic styles, using hip-hop dance forms like locking, waacking, and krump to express resistance and joy.
Co-choreographed with ZooNation's Dannielle 'Rhimes' Lecointe, the piece features tightly controlled sequences that give way to explosive solos. Lil Buck himself appears briefly, demonstrating masterful control and fluidity. Leading dancer Andrew Jackson delivers particularly combustible moves.
Collaboration and Community
Lil Buck's fellowship has included historical research on jookin and its connections to 18th-century dance, as well as a lecture on shoe design's role in street dance. Classics scholar Kathleen Riley also explored parallels between Lil Buck and Fred Astaire. The project highlights the value of cross-disciplinary dialogue, despite ongoing debates about the ethics of accepting Schwarzman's donation, given his ties to Trump and concerns over privilege.
The performance culminates in a curtain call where all young dancers form a circle and take solo turns, with Lil Buck cheering them on. The joy and camaraderie on display, he says, represent 'true freedom in movement.'
