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Ryan Johnson is an award-winning Artist, who provokes, inspires, and hold space for cultural dialogue and reflection by presenting historically informed, intellectually rigorous, and genre-bending performance and dance engagement activities. He is the Executive Artistic Director for SOLE Defined Percussive Dance company, Washington Metro area’s leading arts organization specializing in percussive dance – using the body as an instrument to create musical expression. Advancing styles such as Tap, Stepping, Body Percussion, Sand Dance, and Gumboot. As a cultural ambassador, his work has been performed globally throughout Africa, North, South, and Central America, Southeast Asia, and on stages including Lincoln Center Out of Doors, Lincoln Center Clark Theater and The John F. Kennedy Center of Performing Arts, along with commissioned new works by Universities across the United States. Johnson’s performance career includes The Beatles LOVE & One Drop by Cirque Du Soleil, STOMP, Step Afrika!, Broadway’s After Midnight Tour, Rose Rabbit Lie at The Cosmopolitan Hotel & Casino, resident tap dancer for The Washington Ballet’s The Great Gatsby performances at The John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, and Ayodele Cassels Diary of A Tap Dancer at New York City Center. Along with his extensive performance history, Mr. Johnson served on multiple grant review panels for the National Endowment of Art. He continues to weave together the techniques, history, and aesthetics of Tap Dance, Body Percussion, Stepping, and Theater to forge works that reclaim Black narratives. Ryan K. Johnson actively engaging in cultivating conversations and systems to support the equality of Black, Indigenous and People of Color artists.

is the Washington, D.C. metro area’s leading arts organization specializing in percussive dance, using the body as an instrument creating sonic and kinetic embodied storytelling. Advancing styles such as Tap, Body Percussion, Sand Dance, and Vocal Percussion this BIPOC-led company infuses powerful skills to delight and inspire audiences. Founded in 2011, the company produces immersive performance experience promoting an understanding and appreciation for African-American percussive dance forms rooted in the African Diaspora.