{"id":472,"date":"2025-08-27T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pilgrim-marketing.com\/?p=472"},"modified":"2025-09-01T16:11:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T16:11:15","slug":"ryan-k-johnsons-new-show-uses-percussive-dance-to-explore-climate-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pilgrim-marketing.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/27\/ryan-k-johnsons-new-show-uses-percussive-dance-to-explore-climate-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Ryan K. Johnson\u2019s New Show Uses Percussive Dance to Explore Climate Change"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ryan K. Johnson\u2019s zeal for rhythm is evident the moment he begins to speak about his work, the art form, the state of the arts, and the world. One of the foremost percussive dance artists in the U.S, in 2024 Johnson became the first African American body percussionist to receive a Guggenheim Fellowship<\/a> in choreography. This year, Johnson was seen onstage at The Joyce Theater as part of Ayodele Casel\u2019s THE REMIX,<\/em> for which he also served as assistant director. And this September, Johnson\u2019s dance company, SOLE Defined\u2014which he co-founded and co-directs with fellow percussive dancer Quynn Johnson\u2014will premiere its latest work, ZAZ: The Big Easy<\/em><\/a>, at the Wexner Center at The Ohio State University. The show explores global warming through the lens of Hurricane Katrina.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you don\u2019t understand percussive dance, you really don\u2019t understand dance,\u201d says Johnson. \u201cFor Black Americans, it is one of the art forms that we can own.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Photo by Becca Marcela Oviatt, courtesy Johnson.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Johnson was drawn to percussive dance from a young age, understanding its power to give voice to Black experiences and to connect people in community. Growing up in Baltimore, Maryland, he used dance to express himself. As a young professional, Johnson honed his craft dancing in STOMP<\/em> and with Cirque du Soleil and Step Afrika!, among other notable organizations. He has long focused on using percussive dance to explore complex themes that affect Black communities. \u201cHow do we use percussive dance and technology together to bring awareness to things like global warming?\u201d he says. \u201cHow do we use these forms to create art that celebrates, honors, and acknowledges, while also preserving and protecting the stories from which it comes?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans and surrounding areas, leaving many homeless and without important services. Katrina remains a pivotal event for many Black artists\u2014both those who have ties to New Orleans and those who watched the disaster unfold from afar. For many, Katrina represents the environmental, economic, and social racism that sustains the invisibility of Black communities and their cultural expressions. Twenty years later, Johnson and his collaborators explore the oral and recorded histories of New Orleans residents through the lens of Katrina in ZAZ: The Big Easy<\/em>. The new show\u2014conceived by Johnson, and including choreography by him, Ayodele Casel, Michelle Gibson, Quynn Johnson, Jodeci Milhouse, and Max Pollax, with musical arrangements by Tamar Greene and Henley Connor III\u2014is an immersive sensory experience. It combines speaking, body percussion, tap dance, sand dance, an original sound score, and video projection to convey stories of Katrina survivors, collected by Johnson over the past 10 years. \u201cI started writing this show to preserve these oral histories and experiences of people that I\u2019ve grown to love,\u201d Johnson says. \u201cIt\u2019s been a long time coming.\u201d<\/p>\n

The show\u2019s stories are rooted in the New Orleans dance community, and Johnson hopes that the project will support the advancement of percussive dance, while encouraging more people to contribute to the ongoing restoration efforts in areas beyond the French Quarter in New Orleans. \u201cWe have a relationship with Kelly School of Dance<\/a>, which is one of the oldest Black dancing schools in New Orleans East,\u201d he says. \u201cThe stories in ZAZ<\/em> come from the parents and the students and the studio owner\u2014people that I now consider family.\u201d Ten percent of all ticket sales and contracts for ZAZ <\/em>will go to the New Orleans Tap Festival. \u201cSomething that I\u2019ve been working on with the owner of the Kelly School of Dance is to bring percussive dance back into New Orleans East to help support the social and emotional development of young people,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Johnson is working on auxiliary projects to ensure that the show\u2019s message impacts as many people as possible, raising awareness about the realities of global warming and the shortcomings of government responses. He\u2019s in production for a behind-the-scenes documentary about ZAZ<\/em>, featuring interviews with the people who inspired the work, for which he was awarded a 2024 Documentation and Storytelling Fund Award from the National Performance Network. He\u2019s also building a choreography-led immersive museum exhibit, so that people who don\u2019t or can\u2019t visit the theater can engage with the themes of the work. And he\u2019s working with Quynn Johnson to build a K\u201312 version of the show with an integrated curriculum, to help teach children about global warming.<\/p>\n

Johnson recognizes how ambitious these tasks are, and views them as opportunities to advance percussive dance forms and storytelling. \u201cIt\u2019s not about me,\u201d he says. \u201cIt is about the form, the community, the legacy, who and what has invested in me, and how to honor those things forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The post Ryan K. Johnson\u2019s New Show Uses Percussive Dance to Explore Climate Change<\/a> appeared first on Dance Magazine<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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