Yo-Yo Ma And Lil' Buck Perform "The Swan" (VIDEO)

You don't have to wear a tutu to be en pointe. In this modernized treatment of "The Swan," a cello standard composed by Camille Saint-Saëns, cellist Yo-Yo Ma and Los Angeles dancer Charles "Lil' Buck" Riley accompany one another to create a hybrid of classical music and street dancing. Riley, known for choreographing and composing a dance for performer Janelle Monae's single, "Tightrope," specializes in a dance called the Memphis Jook, and exhibits superhuman balance and (spoiler alert) flexibility. The video, captured in an impromptu shoot by director Spike Jonze, shows the performers carefully watching each other's timing, and after it's all over they seem to get along well for such different artists.

(Via Opening Ceremony)

Comments

[Imago]

10:38 PM on 04/27/2011

This is simply exquisite.

[Mary Anne Haas]

05:02 PM on 04/26/2011

I don't find anything fun, amusing or beautiful or uplifting in this. I find it sad and pathetic. I think the severely handicapped could do a better job and fill me with emotion.

[nolabear]

03:18 PM on 05/05/2011

Well bless your heart...

[Andra Claudia Garcia]

03:38 PM on 04/24/2011

Captured by director Spike Jones' phone...the content was great but he had nothing to do with it

[missindependent]

04:21 PM on 04/23/2011

That was simply beautiful....

[Jimmy Gould]

01:08 PM on 04/23/2011

Here's a short documentary where you can see where Charles Riley (Lil' Buck) "comes from"... Memphis and New Ballet Ensemble and School (newballet. org) --
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4dsMqfvtFE

[DinSea]

11:01 PM on 04/21/2011

WOW what fluidity and sensitivity. Brilliant!

[MadMoll]

12:34 PM on 04/21/2011

This is why my ex will always be a Grammy nominee and never a winner. He'd never do anything like this. Simply stunning.

[Thereza Menezes]

07:20 PM on 04/20/2011

Is this a coincidence? Hope so...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RM2Aio9mvNE&feature=related

[Jimmy Gould]

07:25 PM on 04/20/2011

This piece was conceived of on the way to a performance in W. Memphis -- Katie Smythe (director of New Ballet Ensemble) played Charles the music, told him about the history of Anna Pavlova in classical ballet, introducing the concept (combining the classical music and the jookin' movement combined with ballet) and asked him to think about it... he performed and they continued to refine it in the studio. It's been performed (and continues to be) for thousands of school kids in Memphis. It's fantastic and Charles is SO talented... and New Ballet is finding other kids in Memphis, too.

[Imago]

10:38 PM on 04/27/2011

How wonderful!!

[Lisa B]

11:44 AM on 04/23/2011

That's kind of like saying every performance of Swan Lake is a copy of the first one. That's not how to view dance.

[epna]

02:28 PM on 05/06/2011

Actually, "every" performance of Swan Lake, for instance, acknowledges their choreographer(s)-- they could get in big trouble for 'stealing' choreography. When a choreographer heavily borrows from another choreography or uses parts intentionally, they normally acknowledge it.... Presenting a borrowed idea as an original idea is frowned on. The striking element of this dance was the combination of this particular music + this type of dancing. If Katie Smythe saw the Brazilian video and then presented the concept to Charles as a novel idea she came up with... well, the shame is on her then for not acknowledging the person who came up with the groundbreaking idea. Only she knows the truth.

[mados123]

11:33 AM on 04/20/2011

Wow! Awesome! At 2:25, I yelled out "What!" after seeing that gravity defying, effortless and fluid like return to his feet! His hand movements were also awesome in that, at times, I couldn't tell his left hand from his right.

[Penny Webster]

11:02 AM on 04/20/2011

Simply stunning

[pinkibus]

03:49 AM on 04/20/2011

You have to wonder why people are so greedy when they can do such wonderful things with so little. And does it matter whether either of those two have a long form birth certificate. How cab America be so incredibly wonderful and at the same time so incredibly awful.

[dvncmdy]

04:48 PM on 04/19/2011

Very, very cool.....

[SilGal]

11:20 AM on 04/19/2011

Beautiful stuff! loved it=)

[BeBop33]

10:54 AM on 04/19/2011

THAT was absolutely stellar. Just amazing stuff. Two genius performances.

Except now I think he should go by Yo-Yo-Yo Ma. He's earned the cred...

[DSOTM]

10:09 AM on 04/19/2011

In many ways this is as important as the Aerosmith-Run DMC video of Walk This Way.

It shows that no matter how different two art forms are, they are still connected.