In a collaboration with young British dancers, supported by Oxford's new Schwarzman Centre, Memphis street dancer Charles Riley, aka Lil Buck, has created a performance titled 1776 that reframes the concept of American independence. The piece tackles what Buck calls the 'broken promise' of equality in US history, filled with spirit and rhythm.
From viral sensation to Oxford fellow
Way back in 2011, Lil Buck went viral in an unlikely partnership with cellist Yo-Yo Ma, dancing to Saint-Saëns' The Swan. Buck's dance style, jookin, sees him glide across the floor with boneless grace, walking on air. Unlike much hip-hop and street dance, which is rooted to the earth, jookin goes the way of ballet, sidelining gravity.
Since then, Buck has danced with Madonna, Alicia Keys, and Mikhail Baryshnikov; he's worked with Versace, Spike Lee, and Cirque du Soleil. Now his latest collaboration is with Oxford University, where he was invited as a visiting fellow at the new Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities, built with a £185m donation from US private equity billionaire and Trump donor Stephen Schwarzman. The centre houses a concert hall, two theatres, gallery, cinema, humanities faculties, and the new Institute for Ethics in AI.
Addressing ethics and privilege
Questions have been raised over the acceptance of Schwarzman's funds and the addition of privilege to Britain's richest university. However, for dance, sometimes stuck in its own silo, being part of a conversation with other disciplines is essential to staying relevant in the outside world.
Lil Buck's tenure demonstrates what that conversation can look like. He worked on a history of jookin as a Memphis dance form and collaborated with historians at St Hilda's College, bringing together 21st-century street dance and 18th-century historical dance. He presented on the significance of shoe and trainer design in street dance development, while classics scholar Kathleen Riley lectured on synergies between Lil Buck and Fred Astaire.
Performance 1776: A broken promise
The most visible result is the performance 1776, a collaboration with two youth dance companies, ZooNation and Oxford's Body Politic. It looks back to the founding of the United States 250 years ago, examining the constitutional idea that 'all men are created equal' and what independence and freedom meant then and now. According to Buck, equality was 'a broken promise'. Freedom for some meant oppression for others, especially when slavery was still in place, and the theme remains relevant under the current administration.
Authoritarian figures in frock coats rule over subjects locked into tightly choreographed uniformity, reflecting how much hip-hop dance is built on visible control. But spirit and rhythm prevail; a spark emerges, individuality wins out, and a looser, more fluid feel rips through the dancers, expelling demons with vibrant styles from locking, waacking, krump, and more. ZooNation's Dannielle 'Rhimes' Lecointe is co-choreographer.
Masterful performance and joy
Buck generously gives the stage to his talented young charges. Leading dancer Andrew Jackson's moves are combustible, but when Buck appears, he is masterful, sweeping across the room, suspended poses suddenly materialising. The most heart-lifting part comes at the curtain call, where all the young dancers form a circle and everyone gets a solo, Buck cheering them on. The joy and camaraderie is full to bursting; it's true freedom in movement.
