By Skylar Provencher
A single pair of Nike Air Force 1 shoes sit center stage. All lights go out, then a single spotlight beams down and the crowd goes silent. Two dancers take the stage, their movements mesmerizing all who are watching. Freely flowing to the soft rhythm of a melody, or jolting and popping when beats suddenly hit, the dancers embody the unpredictable music, energizing the crowd.
World-renowned movement duo Charles “Lil Buck” Riley, left, and Jon Boogz.
The dancers at UC Santa Barbara’s Campbell Hall were choreographers Charles “Lil Buck” Riley and Jon Boogz, who were at UC Santa Barbara recently to share their expertise with the campus community, teaching master classes in the Theater and Dance Department, screening their segment of the documentary series “Move” at UCSB’s Carsey-Wolf Center, and performing an original work for a UCSB Arts and Lectures event.
Buck has partnered with brands such as Nike, Louis Vuitton, Apple, Vogue and Boogz won the first Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Choreography for Scripted Programming. The two creative collaborators have become world-renowned for their distinct dance style that seeks to convey complex emotions that society must grapple with but often cannot communicate, giving a voice to the voiceless.
“I just think it’s the greatest nonverbal communication there is,” said Boogz at the Campbell Hall performance. “It’s about learning how to discharge trauma and anxieties from the body through movement.”
The duo emphasizes mental health in their performances, using movement to work through and heal painful emotions instead of running away from them. Dance is their form of therapy, giving them a space to communicate through art, said the celebrated choreographers.
Their Carsey-Wolf appearance featured a Q&A moderated by UCSB English, Dance, and Black Studies professor Stephanie Batiste, after a screening of their segment of “Move” in the Pollock Theater. The five-episode Netflix documentary, released in 2020, tells the story of dancers around the world who shape the art form. Buck and Boogz discussed their careers as well as the filming process with French filmmakers Thierry Demaizière and Alban Teurlai.
UCSB English, Dance, and Black Studies Professor Stephanie Batiste, left, leads a post-screening Q&A in UCSB's Pollock Theater with Lil Buck, center, and Jon Boogz. The choreographers spoke about their careers and the Netflix documentary “Move.”
To conclude their visit, UCSB’s Arts and Lectures hosted an evening with Buck and Boogz in which the duo put on an exclusive performance in Campbell Hall. Alternating between live dance and filmed pieces, the performances depicted difficult stories of racism, familial trauma, prejudice, discrimination and division. With each of their dances, Buck and Boogz accentuated the raw emotions of humanity, offering their audiences a story within their movements.
In one filmed segment they danced to audio-recorded spoken poetry by their creative collaborator Robin Sanders, who narrated the piece Love Heals All Wounds. “Let down your guard and feel the pulsating of humanity,” Sanders said.
The multimedia performance was also followed by a Q&A in which the two described how their dancing moved from the streets to the stage to the screen.
Charles “Lil Buck” Riley, left, and Jon Boogz.
Growing up in the inner cities of Philadelphia and Miami, Boogz developed his style of movement —known as popping—by learning from street dancers in his community. Buck, raised in Memphis, similarly shared how dance opened his eyes to the world, pushing him to opportunities outside of his hometown. Buck recently started the Lil Buck Foundation for the youth in Memphis, aiming to “create opportunities for them to believe again,” he said.
Buck and Boogz first met 15 years ago at the Debbie Reynolds dance studio in Los Angeles and discovered a mutual admiration for the way each other moved. Starting with L.A. street performances on the roads of Santa Monica, the duo quickly captured the hearts of audiences.
“I found the comradery that I needed at the time to ignite my belief that I could do this,” Boogz said.
Inspiring one another, Buck and Boogz saw their careers take off. Buck began touring with Madonna, and Boogz choreographed for Cirque du Soleil’s “Michael Jackson ONE.” The two reunited at Cirque du Soleil and began choreographing and acting for “Blindspotting,” a 2018 American comedy film.
The finale of the night was their Emmy-winning dance from the film “Blindspotting” moved the crowd with its heavily emotional expression of the history of the Black community. In three parts, the dance depicted the history of discrimination, prejudice and unjust violence experienced by Black Americans, ending with a shocking gunshot.
“This message is bigger than you,” Boogz said.
Skylar Provencher is a fourth-year UC Santa Barbara student majoring in Film and Media Studies. She wrote this article for her Digital Journalism class in the Writing Program.