Ryan K. Johnson

Ryan K. Johnson, M.F.A is an award-winning artist scholar who investigates and amplifies the oral histories of Black communities, generating sonic and kinetic sensory-driven immersive evening-length percussive dance performances infused with technology, vocalization, and embodied storytelling as an archival practice. In 2015, he co-created SOLE Defined (www.soledefined.com), the Washington Metro area’s leading arts organization specializing in percussive dance, Tap Dance, Body Percussion, and Sand Dance – using the body as an instrument to create evening-length sensory-driven immersive performances. Johnson’s credits include performing with Gregory Hines and Marvin Hamlisch, Ayodele Casel’s Diary of a Tap Dancer, BB&T Zelle Commercial, Step Afrika!, STOMP, Cirque Du Soleil, Broadway’s After Midnight Tour, and The Washington Ballet. Ryan is the first percussive dance artist awarded The John F. Kennedy Center’s Office Hours Residency in 2023, the 2021 Bakers Award, the 2012 Coppin State University Dance Legacy Award, and the 2010 DC Metro Award for Outstanding Individual Performance. He has won the 2008, 2017, and 2020 Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Award. Currently, Ryan Johnson is The Ohio State University Dance Department’s first post-MFA fellow. Ryan dedicates his work to his mother, Vanessa Jackson, grandparents, Barbara Jackson and Donald Richardson, and his Uncle Art Sommerville.