Lil Buck’s New York Times Close Up

• New Ballet Director, Katie Smythe, with Lil Buck (center) and dancers MK Thinnes and CWebster on the Promenade at New York State Theater after Lil Buck’s world premiere with famous Parisian photographer and social advocate, JR.

Memphis’ own Lil Buck is just about the hottest thing in dance these days. The New York Times has noticed.

At 26, Lil Buck, born Charles Riley, has already carved out a niche that almost no other dancer can fill, bouncing from music videos (that’s him, slo-mo spinning through Janelle Monáe’s “Tightrope”) to a Super Bowl halftime show (2012, with Madonna) to Lincoln Center, where in April he was a star soloist in the debut of a ballet by the French artist JR. He introduced mainstream audiences to jookin, a style of street dance born in his hometown, Memphis, whose intricate freestyle footwork has captivated critics.

Read the whole thing.