Part of the Teaching Artists Present collection.
Stepping is a percussive art form created by African Americans on the campuses of Historically Black Colleges and Universities. In this lesson, Mr. Ryan introduces basic stepping movement and rhythm patterns to show students in grades 2-5 how to turn their body into a human drum using stomps and claps, and how to explore creating beat patterns and musicality in their own space.
Ryan Johnson is an award-winning artist who seeks to provoke, inspire, 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 co-founder and artistic director for SOLE Defined Percussive Dance company, an artist in residence at Dance Place in Washington, DC. The mission of SOLE Defined is to re-establish percussive dance as a vital part of the concert dance community while cultivating art education programming in historically disinvested communities.
Johnson’s 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 for the Performing Arts, along with commissioned new works by universities across the United States. Johnson’s performance career includes The Beatles LOVE and One Drop by Cirque Du Soleil, STOMP, Step Afrika!, Broadway’s After Midnight Tour, Rose Rabbit Lie at The Cosmopolitan Hotel & Casino, and as resident tap dancer for The Washington Ballet’s The Great Gatsby performances at the Kennedy Center.
Johnson continues to weave together the techniques, history, and aesthetics of tap dance, body percussion, stepping, and theater to forge works that reclaim Black narratives. He is actively engaging in cultivating conversations and systems to support the equality of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color artists.
