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In an ongoing effort to showcase the incredible range of talent in Yellowstone National Park we would like to introduce you to Skippy the Wonder Buffalo. Skippy, shown here working out the choreography for this seasons presentation of “Oklahoma”, is the best known choreographer working in the park today. He has received rave reviews in the Yellowstone Gazette for his work in “Mame”, “West Yellowstone-side Story” and his biggest hit, in which he did double duty as lead choreographer and also took on Robert Preston’s role as the irascible musical instrument salesman ‘Professor’ Harold Hill in “The Music Man”, is still being talked about as the single greatest performance by a buffalo in a lead role in a park sponsored musical. River City will never be the same. Being a true performer he is always on stage and ready to put on a show. There isn’t a show tune that you can whistle, hum or play on your banjo that he can’t set his nimble hooves to tapping to and soon he is giving you an impromptu exhibition of his breathtaking dancing skills.

Born Francois Beeson to loving parents Eduardo and Maria Constanza y Beeson, (an incredible flamenco dancer in her own right) in a little corner of the Lamar valley near the confluence of Soda butte creek and the Lamar river, he had a short but troubled childhood. The family’s Basque heritage kept them from being totally accepted by the main herd and due to his constant wearing of his jaunty red beret and being different from the other youngsters in the Lamar herd his teen age years were difficult for him. He was often bullied by the other young bulls because he’d rather dance or lie quietly in the reeds next to the river listening to the melodies of the water cascading through the shallows, than engage in the rough sport of mock fighting and the locker room mentality of the buffalo wallow crowd. Often he could be found alone in some small meadow dancing to the sound of the wind in the aspen. Sadly he was dubbed Skippy, as a derisive nickname, by the others who thought he was a ‘little light in his hooves’ * so to speak, and didn’t understand his need to dance, dance, dance.

It wasn’t until his third year in his drama class at the prestigious Yellowstone Institute for the Arts that he found his true calling. On a whim he tried out for the part of the King in the amateur production of “The King and I” and discovered what he had been created for. He had been born to dance and the rest as they say is history. He went on to perform in every musical done in the park’s illustrious repertoire and was soon choreographing and playing parts well beyond his tender years. Now the nickname that was given to him as a derogatory insult by his peers has become a stage name he wears proudly. That name, Skippy the Wonder Buffalo, now draws standing room only crowds from as far away as the South entrance of the park, to Sylvan Lake in the east and from the Madison river valley in the West, all the way to the metropolis of Mammoth in the north, all clamoring to see Skippy perform. Twyla Tharp, the noted Broadway choreographer and dancer, was supposedly heard to say after seeing Skippy perform the lead in the all buffalo production of  “Sweeny Todd”, “Bravo! Bravo!” and what higher praise could a dancing buffalo aspire to. If you’re lucky, because tickets are becoming nearly impossible to acquire, you may get to see Skippy performing in the sunset production of “Cats” being  presented every night but Wednesday in the Gibbon meadows amphitheater. Please remember, no recording devices are allowed and stay back at least 100 yards from the performers. Hope to see you there, I know I won’t miss a performance.

* [Politically Correct disclaimer: Back when Skippy, I mean, Francois was a young buffalo this was a common attitude amongst the younger buffalo in the herd, but after rigorous and constant readjustment of their prejudicial belief structure by the media and the enlightened intelligentsia, that kind of buffalo-phobic thinking has been completely eradicated, or so they say. We, of course, make no judgments here, preferring to treat each buffalo with the respect they deserve.]