FOUNDERS
“Ryan and Quynn are energetic, authentic, and inspiring.” - Temisha Richardson
Quynn Johnson
Quynn Johnson, a graduate of Howard University in Washington, DC, and native of Flint, Michigan, is an award-winning performing, teaching artist and author. She has toured as the tap soloist in the Tony Award-winning production After Midnight (NCL) and performed both nationally and internationally. Highlights include featured 2020 recipient of the Kennedy Center Local Dance Commissioning Project, soloist in the Washington Ballet production of The Great Gatsby, former member of Savion Glover’s Tap Company TiiDii3000, Cirque du Soleil’s Mosaic production, the Festival Folklórico del Pacífico and in Buenaventura and Cali, Colombia and has toured Peru as part of the Festival Internacional de Cajón Peruano. Quynn is the co-creator of the D.C.-based percussive dance company SOLE Defined with Ryan Johnson.
A National Credential Residency Teaching Artist with Young Audiences and a Wolf Trap TA, Quynn is a 3 time awardee of the Individual Artist Award for Dance: Choreography (MSAC). As a teaching artist, Quynn has reached over 9,500 youth from pre-k through 12th grade with assemblies, residencies, and workshops. Her arts-integrated residencies bridge tap dance with literacy, math, Social-Emotional Learning. In 2011, Quynn became a self-published author with her children’s book, Lucky’s Tap Dancing Feet. @justquynn
Ryan Johnson
Ryan Johnson is an award-winning performing artist and Founding Artistic Director of SOLE Defined Percussive Dance Company. Johnson seeks to provoke, inspire, and hold space for cultural conversation and reflection by presenting historically informed, intellectually demanding, and genre-infused performance and community dance engagement activities. Johnson’s performance career includes Beatles LOVE and One Drop by Cirque Du Soleil, Off-Broadway show STOMP, soloist for the world-renown Step Afrika!resident tap dancer for The Washington Ballet’s “The Great Gatsby” and in the Tony Award-winning show After Midnight created by Jack Viertel and choreographed by Warren Carlyle with NCL Productions.
As a virtuosic creator, Johnson has been commissioned to create new works, lead workshops, and present lecture demonstrations at universities, dance festivals, and conventions. His choreographic career includes the 2010 Season Premier of Extreme Makeover Home Edition starring Raven-Symone. 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”. Johnson has led cultural exchange performances and workshops throughout Africa, North America, South America, and Southeast Asia in partnership with the United States Cultural Affair Department. @rkj.dance