Whenever they are in the house, you can be sure your audiences are in for an engaging, high-energy treat!”
-Jane Raleigh, former Co-Director of Dance Programming, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
About
SOLE Defined brings powerful, rhythm-driven performance to stages across the country. Led by Guggenheim Fellow Ryan K. Johnson, MFA, hailed by Dance Magazine as “one of the foremost percussive dance artists in the U.S.,” and DANCE/USA Fellow and international teaching artist Quynn Johnson, Ed.M., SOLE Defined blends Tap, Body Percussion, Sand Dance, and audience activation into contemporary performances where dance, music, and theater converge.
A two-time NEFA National Dance Project Award recipient, SOLE Defined offers presenters dynamic repertory ranging from interactive works to full-length productions, with opportunities to extend the performance through workshops, educational programs, artists engagements, and community activations. Connect with General Arts Touring to explore current repertory and upcoming performance opportunities.
Repertory
The Pulse
A dynamic, interactive percussive dance experience blending Tap, Body Percussion, Sand Dance, and audience activation. The Pulse invites audiences into a shared rhythmic experience where performers and spectators become part of the performance.
ZAZ | 2024 NEFA NDP AWARDEE
A contemporary percussive dance theater work rooted in New Orleans, memory, oral history, and the cultural traditions that shape the city and Hurricane Katrina survivors. ZAZ brings rhythm, storytelling, and embodied history together in a powerful theatrical experience.
4Four: The Rhythm Holds Our Stories
Coming Soon | 2027 NEFA NDP AWARDEE
An interdisciplinary performance project exploring African Diasporic percussive dance as a living archive. 4Four brings Tap, Stepping, Body Percussion, and Sand Dance into conversation with Black American Music, transforming the body into an instrument, archive, and site of knowledge. Through rhythm, composition, and embodied research, the work asks how cultural memory is carried, transmitted, and transformed through the moving body.
Book SOLE Defined for your next season.