Meet Ryan Johnson | Founding Executive Artistic Director

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ryan Johnson and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ryan, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
My co-founder, Quynn Johnson, and I recognized a lack of support, representation, and space for African Diaspora percussive dance in academia and the performing arts continuum. At the time, we both had our own Tap Dance companies in the Baltimore/ Washington area. After a series of shared performances, we decided to merge our companies together and establish SOLE Defined. Our mission is to become an institutional hub for percussive dancers using a synthesis of kinesthetic movement methodologies, embodied storytelling, integrated media, and historical data to serve actively disinvested communities while combating systemic racism and advancing equality in the dance continuum. As we continue to expand, we established the SOLE Stepz Arts Education program offering an innovative alternative to the traditional learning structure and establishing deep connections to students, educators, and the community. Inspired by President Barack Obama, “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek,” SOLE Defined performances center on social-political issues advancing the devolvement of bridges toward Belonging and cultivating a more equitable landscape for generations of BIPOC practitioners. SOLE Defined has become the Washington Metro area’s leading arts organization specializing in percussive dance – using the body as an instrument to create musical expression and living archives of the histories and methodologies of African Diasporic percussive dance. Our programming includes local, regional, national, and international engagements and services. The organization continues to establish its visibility by cultivating programming for the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Queens Theatre, Lincoln Center, and The International Association of Blacks in Dance (IABD).

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Ryan Kenneth Johnson [@rkj.dance] is a virtuosic performer, choreographer and Founding Artistic Director of SOLE Defined, a company in residence at Dance Place in Washington, D.C. Currently he is a Dance & Social Justice MFA candidate at The University of Texas at Austin. He is a well-known global performing and teaching artist who has been called “purely amazing” by Septime Weber, Artistic Director of the Hong Kong Ballet. Johnson started his professional journey in the arts performing with Gregory Hines and Marvin Hamlisch with The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in his hometown of Baltimore, Maryland. In 2008 & 2018, Johnson’s was awarded the Individual Artist Award for Choreography from Maryland State Arts Council. Johnson made history in 2010 by becoming the first tap dancer to win the D.C. Metro Dance Awards: Outstanding Solo Performance. That same year, Johnson was a finalist for the D.C. Metro Emerging Artist Award. Johnson believes that he was created to perform, entertain, and use the arts to enhance the lives of people globally.

Johnson spent two decades on stages including; The Beatles LOVE by Cirque Du Soleil as Sugar Plum, and One Drop by Cirque Du Soleil under the direction of Mukhtar Omar Sharif Mukhtar. He was in the New York City and Tour of the Americas cast of the hit show STOMP where he played Particle Man and Ringo. Johnson was the soloist, and production manager for the world renown step company Step Afrika!, and the resident tap dancer for The Washington Ballet’s “The Great Gatsby,” under the direction of Septime Weber. Johnson performed in the Tony Award-winning show After Midnight created by Jack Viertel and choreographed by Warren Carlyle with NCL Productions.

While on stage, Johnson continues to develop his passion for the arts by creating work for social change. He was the lead choreographer for the 2010 Season Premier of Extreme Makeover Home Edition in Baltimore, MD starring Raven-‐Symone. He has premiered new works at the International Body Music Festival in Brazil, New York City Tap Festival: Tap International, and Cirque Du Soleil with The Nevada Ballet’s “A Choreographers’ Showcase” in Las Vegas. Of this performance, the Las Vegas Review Journal wrote, “Urban Jungle: The Village, by Ryan Johnson of The Beatles LOVE, is a burst of pure feeling, the most infectious entry of the program.”

Johnson has been commissioned to teach workshops, residencies, lecture demonstrations, and art integrated programming at universities, dance festivals and conventions worldwide. He has partnered with United States Embassies to participate in cultural exchange performances and workshops throughout Africa, North America, South America, and SouthEast Asia.
Johnson co-‐founded SOLE Defined with Quynn Johnson, an award-‐winning percussive dance company that intersects music, movement, and imagination, creating an exciting twist on theater and percussive dance. SOLE Defined’s mission is to educate youth, empower communities, and entertain the masses through high quality performing arts and impactful arts education programming. The Washington Post has noted SOLE Defined as presenting “the coolest number of the night with its high-‐stepping and toe-tapping blend of styles.” Under the Artistic Direction of Johnson, SOLE Defined has performed on stages globally including DancEncore, Jacobs Pillow, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and The World Children’s
Festival in Turin, Italy. SOLE Defined has premiered five new shows, Black Amer-‐I-‐Can (2013), The Experiment (2014), Phenix (2015) and Frequency (2016), and Zaz (2018) all written and directed by Ryan K Johnson.

Johnson credits his passion for the arts to his mother, Vanessa Jackson, and tap teacher Mary Slater.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
One of my closest friends is Tamar Greene, one of the world’s most talented Broadway performers, vocalists, and creative. Our friends say when we get together, we will eat, laugh and overspend. We would start our day with breakfast and mimosas with a conversation about art, or a project one of us is working on. That would be followed by some form of creative exchange, building music, a show concept, or choreography while cracking jokes. Once that’s done, it’s time to eat again. We would hit a local spot, Caribbean spot, or seafood Restaurant and fellowship over food before hitting some local attractions depending on the city we are in. From there, we would let the energy of the day direct what we do next. At some point, we are going to hit an overpriced Restaurant dressed like we “don’t belong” there, order bottles of Veuve Clicquot, Aqua Pana, and single pours of Uncle Nearest while reflecting on our favorite moment on tour or in life. If we aren’t performing, we will end up at a music venue with live music and probably end up joining the band. Overall there will be tons of laughing, reflecting, and creating!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
SOLE Defined and our leadership has a heart of gratitude to our Board of Directors, Artists, and Crew. We honor the Masters of the dance who have come before us. Specifically, we thank Dr. Vanessa Jackson, Christopher K Morgan, Stephanie Johnson, Tamar Greene, Lindsay Roberts Greene, Ayodele Casel, Torya Beard, and those known and unknown working to preserve, archive, and advance the history of African Diasporic Percussive Dance.

Website: www.soledefined.com

Instagram: @rkj.dance @soledefinedlive

Youtube: SOLE Defined

Image Credits
Photography courtesy of SOLE Defined.