Lil Buck

Lil Buck moved to Los Angeles when he was 19 to pursue a career in dance.^[7]:2 In 2010, he appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show^[10] and co-choreographed the music video for the song "Tightrope" by Janelle Monáe.

En 2011, el director y ex bailarín de ballet Damian Woetzel conoció a Lil Buck y lo emparejó con Yo-Yo Ma en la interpretación de "El cisne", que se hizo viral en YouTube. Woetzel supo de Lil Buck a través de su esposa, Heather Watts, quien vio un antiguo video de YouTube de Lil Buck bailando estilo libre al ritmo de " Le cygne " ( El cisne ) de Camille Saint-Saëns en una presentación de la escuela New Ballet Ensemble (NBE) en West Memphis, Arkansas. La directora de NBE, Katie Smythe, le presentó a Buck la música de Saint-Saëns y la idea de aplicar el jookin' a la música clásica. Watts le mostró el video a su esposo Woetzel, quien luego se lo mostró a Yo-Yo Ma . Finalmente, todos se conocieron a través de Facebook, contactando a Katie Smythe (la maestra de ballet de Lil Buck), quien facilitó la presentación. ^{[ 7 ] : 2}

Después de la actuación de "The Swan", la relación profesional de Woetzel con Lil Buck continuó. Woetzel invitó a Lil Buck a ser el artista residente en el Festival Internacional de Danza de Vail de 2011. ^{[ 10 ] [ 12 ]} Volvió a juntar a Lil Buck con Yo-Yo Ma para una actuación en el Foro Estados Unidos-China sobre Artes y Cultura de 2011 en Beijing . ^{[ 13 ] [ 14 ]} Lil Buck fue la primera persona de su familia en viajar fuera de los Estados Unidos. Su viaje fue documentado en un cortometraje independiente titulado Lil Buck Goes to China . La película fue dirigida por Ole Schell, hijo de Orville Schell , ^{[ 15 ]} un periodista estadounidense radicado en China que organizó el foro en Beijing. Después de su viaje, Bruce Weber fotografió a Lil Buck para una entrevista en la edición de primavera de 2011 de la revista VMan . ^{[ 16 ] [ 17 ]}

Aside from working with Woetzel and Yo-Yo Ma, Lil Buck danced for Madonna during her Super Bowl XLVI halftime show after winning the "Dance for Madonna Smirnoff Nightlife Exchange Competition".^[13][18][19] He eventually joined The MDNA Tour as one of 22 dancers.^[18][20][21] Due to all of his accomplishments during the year, Dance Spirit magazine named him one of "The Most Influential People of 2011".^[22]

In 2012, Lil Buck was named one of Dance Magazine's "25 to Watch".^[9] The same year, he modeled in a national GAP ad^[18] and danced in two NOWNESS videos, one of which was directed by ballet choreographer Benjamin Millepied.^[23] The other video was directed by Jacob Sutton who submitted a longer version to Cinedans, a Dutch film festival that showcases films based on dance.^[24]

Lil Buck spent most of 2013 dancing in the Cirque du Soleil show Michael Jackson: One.^[25][26] He modeled men's clothing in an 8-page spread in GQ magazine titled "How to Kick Your Jeans Habit".^[17] He also appeared on The Colbert Report^[15] and spoke at the Aspen Ideas Festival.^[27]

Lil Buck performed with Yo-Yo Ma a third time at an event directed by Woetzel and held at (Le) Poisson Rouge in New York City.^[3] He and his cousin Ron "Prime Tyme" Myles eventually won a Bessie Award for this performance.^[28] Later in the year, Lil Buck made the August 2013 cover of Dance magazine^[29] and briefly appeared in the Spike Jonze film Her as a busker/dancer.^[30]

In March 2014, Lil Buck performed at the TEDxTeen conference in New York City.^[31] In April, he appeared in another Jacob Sutton dance film sponsored by Diesel^[32] and he danced in the New York City Ballet's Spring premiere that was choreographed by artist JR and scored by musician Woodkid.^[33][34] Lil Buck was a guest judge on season 11 of So You Think You Can Dance.^[34] He performed in the opening credits for Spike Lee's 2014 film, Da Sweet Blood of Jesus.^[35]

In May, Lil Buck performed in Versailles with dancers from Benjamin Millepied's ballet company.^[36] Afterward, he went on tour with Madonna again to promote her album Rebel Heart. In a continuation of his interest in modern dance, Lil Buck appeared in a three-and-a-half minute rag & bone commercial with the classical dance artist Mikhail Baryshnikov.^[37] He modeled for French jeans retailer Kaporal^[38] and partnered with Versace to create a line of sneakers exclusively available online and at Versace's New York City store.^[39][40] Due to his accomplishments, he made the November 2015 cover of The Wall Street Journal's "Innovators Issue".^[41][42]

In 2016, Lil Buck collaborated with dancer Jon Boogz and artist Alexa Meade to create "Color of Reality", a video addressing gun violence. The New York Times likened the video to "...van Gogh — that is, if one of his paintings were brought to life as a performative protest."^[43]