In this episode, NCCAkron’s Executive/Artistic Director, Christy Bolingbroke, enters the ‘studio’ with Columbus Ohio based Ryan K. Johnson an artist-scholar dedicated to African Diasporic Percussive Dance, Johnson employs immersive sound and media technologies to archive Black American histories through performance.
Jennifer Edwards: Thank you for joining us for the seventh season of Inside the Dancer’s Studio where we bring listeners like you closer to the creative process. Celebrating a decade of rigorous play and positive failure, NCCAkron is an incubator and hub for dance research and development and serves as a connector, a catalyst, and a cultural matchmaker. Inside the Dancer’s Studio is recorded as an ongoing documentation practice with NCCAkron visiting artists.
Jennifer Edwards: In this episode, NCCAkron’s Executive/Artistic Director, Christy Bolingbroke, enters the ‘studio’ with Columbus Ohio based Ryan K. Johnson an artist-scholar dedicated to African Diasporic Percussive Dance, Johnson employs immersive sound and media technologies to archive Black American histories through performance.
Christy Bolingbroke: I'm really excited for today's episode because I get to revisit and have a conversation with choreographer Ryan K. Johnson. You are so multi-talented, multifaceted. I've come to understand more of your history also with music. You don't just do dance, but in your own words, what is choreography?
Ryan K. Johnson: Choreography for me is the physical manifestation of a spiritual experience.
Christy Bolingbroke: Hmm.
Ryan K. Johnson: Or a physical manifestation of a dream. One could also say it is, imagination into the physical.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ryan K. Johnson: And so like all of those things are ways in which,, I experience choreography. , It's not so much a doing for me, it's a, a language.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm.
Ryan K. Johnson: It's a energy.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ryan K. Johnson: It's say, a feeling, it's an experience. It really reminds me a lot about my grandmother and her cooking.
Christy Bolingbroke: How, how, so? I went, we went from dreaming to cooking. I'm gonna need you to connect me.
Ryan K. Johnson: Well, well, I think about, I think about like the big thing is the dreaming and then there's like the process of making, I'm always thinking about my grandmother, uh, on Sundays, she used to cook dinner. It was like a ritual for our family. She would cook Sunday dinner. And my mother didn't cook at all. Like that was not something that she was interested in
Christy Bolingbroke: Mine neither.
Ryan K. Johnson: She cooks now, right?
Christy Bolingbroke: Okay. Same. Yeah.
Ryan K. Johnson: Yeah. But she, my grandmother would always say, boy, come in this kitchen, learn how to cook. How you going to eat if you don't know how to cook? Uh, and I noticed my grandmother never had like a recipe book or a cookbook as I got older, I realized that she was really. Laying some foundational lessons into the fibers of my existence. Right. She was teaching me through process, through her guiding hands.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ryan K. Johnson: She was teaching me through her intuition and her body as, as an archive of memory from how she was taught. The food never really tasted the same week to week. Specifically her macaroni and cheese. That was my favorite [Bolingbroke laughs]. But it was always my favorite. Right.
Christy Bolingbroke: Yeah.
Ryan K. Johnson: And I realized from her that, uh, mastery wasn't about perfection.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ryan K. Johnson: It was about being in the process. It was about showing up. It was about taking chance, and that's really how I look at choreography. And so choreography, it's like my grandmother's recipe to teaching me how to cook essentially.
Christy Bolingbroke: Yes. Right on. I mean, there's so much in there that I heard also about how it, it's developing intuition, instincts…
Ryan K. Johnson: Mm-hmm.
Christy Bolingbroke:…listening to your body and making as a mean of ritual…
Ryan K. Johnson: Yeah.
Christy Bolingbroke:…not as a means to an end.
Ryan K. Johnson: Yeah.
Christy Bolingbroke:…and, and so like with all of that, that spirituality. When is the first time that you actually claimed the title choreographer?
Ryan K. Johnson: I think I'm still trying to claim it. I struggle with titles and labels, uh, when it comes to, you know, like when people are like, you're a master artist, and I'm like, nah [Laughs]. Like, uh, uh…
Christy Bolingbroke: What does that even mean?
Ryan K. Johnson: Right. What does it mean, you know? Um. You know, and so I'm, I'm discovering what it means to be a choreographer, because sometimes I'm my grandmother, I'm like the guiding hands.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ryan K. Johnson: And then other times I'm the student…
Christy Bolingbroke: Mmm.
Ryan K. Johnson:…that I'm learning from my collaborators. I'm learning from the artists that are in the space because they all have their zone of genius that they're bringing in. I don't know, I'm stuck on this cooking analogy. I think, I'm a chef and like a chef in it's kitchen, you have people that have certain skills to bring the dish together. So in that term and, and looking at it through that lens, I mean, I'm just starting, you know. I'm, I'm definitely, I'm definitely the head chef, but like. I'm coming to terms with it. I'm excited every time I get to go into a studio and create and build, and each time I'm like, Ooh, I'm doing this.
Christy Bolingbroke: I mean that…
Ryan K. Johnson: You know, so it's each time, you know…
Christy Bolingbroke: …it bring, that brings up so much in terms of like maintaining a beginner mindset or…
Ryan K. Johnson: Mm-hmm
Christy Bolingbroke:...leading with curiosity, A tangential question. Since you've introduced your, your grandmother [Johnson laughs] and brought her with us today?
Ryan K. Johnson: Yeah.
Christy Bolingbroke: Did she, in her Sunday rituals, did she ever listen to a specific kind of music? Was there music playing in the kitchen?
Ryan K. Johnson: That's hilarious. So my grandmother, uh, well my grandfather and my mother would play music from like Motown all the way through like the traditional drumming of our indigenous ancestors, uh, to world music, you name it. And so they were like, exposing me to all of this, all of these sounds. My grandfather lemme show you how I did it back at my day, you know? And, but then I realized how memory lives in the body…
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ryan K. Johnson: …as well. My approach to choreography. It's really like all of those things. But also using choreography as an archival methodology looking at the body as a site of memory, looking at the physical, oral, and written histories of things. The digital archives, how do I bring all of that into, into this like recipe of gumbo…
Christy Bolingbroke: Hmm.
Ryan K. Johnson: …where, I work hard not to like be a melting pot. I don't like that term. I really look at choreography and art making, uh, like making gumbo.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ryan K. Johnson: All of the flavors have the right amount and the right balance so that it all tastes good. Right?
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ryan K. Johnson: Because I want people to carry the work that I make with them when they leave. And be able to like still feel it months afterwards.
Christy Bolingbroke: For those that haven't seen your work, Ryan and, uh, his company, SOLE Defined, focus on percussive dance, that is one of the, their leading styles. And it's everything from Sand Dance to Tap to body percussion. And because that represents such a simultaneity of both music and dance. How would you describe your choreographic relationship to music?
Ryan K. Johnson: I think it's one in the same, right? I think I am the intersection of music and movement.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ryan K. Johnson: And the choreography that I make is reflective of that. The music and the movement together create the narration that I want people to understand.
Christy Bolingbroke: What I've appreciated is the more of a cinematic experience.
Ryan K. Johnson: Yeah.
Christy Bolingbroke: And that adds to the seasoning metaphor, but…
Ryan K. Johnson: Of course, of course.
Christy Bolingbroke: This may be very remedial, but I'm curious in your experience, like do percussive dance artists work with a score?
Ryan K. Johnson: A little bit, right? I think each percussive dance artist has their individual approach to, to making. Sometimes I am inspired by a drum pattern that I know. And then how do I translate that rhythmic phrase, to parts of the body. Listening for the tonality and the texture of the note that the body can produce. How do I translate, you know, the tone slap or base of a djembe to the body?
Christy Bolingbroke: Hmmm.
Ryan K. Johnson: How do I layer, how do I take Jazz structure, you know, A, B, AC, as a guiding or like a, as like a, a structure for the movement. And so sometimes it's listening to music or the music that I hear in my head, and how do I then bring that from thought or memory into the physical form? What parts of my body over the last 20 some years have I found that sound like this note that I, that I want?
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ryan K. Johnson: All right. Uh, looking at the body as an instrument, with. Scale, and notation. How can I produce the music that supports the movement? And then how do I create movement that makes it visually appealing to someone who, may only have sight?
Christy Bolingbroke: Hmm.
Ryan K. Johnson: You know, so I think, uh, I think about. How my work translates across many, many planes, right?
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ryan K. Johnson: Um, you know, if a person is unable to hear, what do they see? And experience is a, if a person is unable to see, what can they hear and feel through the experience, right? And so I'm thinking about all of those things while I'm making. And then pulling from my, my archive of experience. How do I get an audience to feel what I want them to feel and pull their attention to this particular part of the theater or stage so that somebody else can do a set change. We can play sand, we can do the right. And so just really thinking about, I, I really think about the whole experience of the audience member, and wanting to make the work that's inclusive as possible to anyone who cares about art or comes to see art or has been supporting me. You know, I want to make sure that they, they get in a full body experience.
Christy Bolingbroke: That makes so much sense because hearing you talk about that reminds me of my experience with your current work, ZAZ. I was aware of how you were also crafting to remove some of those senses. I, I'm thinking particularly of the searching section. They're searching for people after Katrina has hit New Orleans. The dancers and performers have these headlights on and that's feels like it is almost the only light coming out of those headlamps that we can see. But because it's percussive dance, we know that they're dancing, but I can't see any of the moves. I can only hear what sounds they're making.
Ryan K. Johnson: Yeah.
Christy Bolingbroke: By removing the emphasis on site that truly generated this immersive, full-bodied experience, created a greater sense of, of, of calling on my empathy as a witness, in a way that I had not experienced in dance.Cause I feel as a visual medium sometimes in other genres and art forms. We tend to focus on the shapes, on the, the skills and, and what, what's going on. By you removing some of those senses and heightening others, it created, uh, and I don't use this word lightly, an immersive experience.
Ryan K. Johnson: Yeah.
Christy Bolingbroke: That is I think exactly what you were describing. But I'm gonna ask you a follow up question because. One of NCC Akron's research questions through this series is, you know, where do we have what I call 20th century ideas, the single choreographer companies, the codified techniques that are reified with a a, a bricks and mortar school or certification. And then a 21st century dance ecosystem where the majority of the field's working on a project basis, we're sort of shedding any one idea 'cause, you know, everyone's so versatile now. And so in that spectrum, living in this moment, being the dance maker, the artist and leader that you are, how would you define virtuosity in dance?
Ryan K. Johnson: Wow. I kind of want to go, go backwards to come forward. Sankofa.
Christy Bolingbroke: Uh, Sankofa, let's go.
Ryan K. Johnson: Yes, yes. Sanko, yes. You know, that piece specifically has so much inside it that I'm not sure people are aware of. It starts off with a calling, a rhythmic layering of calling that was inspired by, um libation, right? The spiritual practice of calling the ancestors and pouring water. Well, water already existed from the storm, right? And so this piece starts out with a structured libation of sorts of the artists searching for their mother, their father, their sister, their brothers. That creates this rhythmic undertone while searching. And you, and you're right, these headlamps give you like a glimpse. You, you'll see parts of of the human body you'll see, you'll see, you may see a audience member, or you may see a foot of a dancer, but also using haze, we are now talking about the physics of seeing light. I got this idea from my time being in Stomp of how they use headlamps, and suspension.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mmm.
Ryan K. Johnson: And then also thinking about how in Step Africa we use headlamps for the Gumboot section.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ryan K. Johnson: Um, that pulls from the diamond and gold mine. So right That my archive, now I'm coming into the space. So we're talking about, the physical searching of loved ones through a storm, practicing the spiritual practice of libation, using the ideas of physics to create an environment of, with using lighting. Then we're talking about how do we pull away one sense to activate another one in a way that then creates this immersive world.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mmm.
Ryan K. Johnson: And so I think that's what it's about in the 21st century.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ryan K. Johnson: It's about how are we putting all of the ingredients to reimagine how people engage with art.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ryan K. Johnson: How do we pull them from spectators to participants? How do we move them from just a patron that is paying to see something, to actually being a part of something that they can then hold onto. I think that's what it's about in the 21st century for me. Yeah.
Christy Bolingbroke: Beautifully illustrated, like, just to, to understand that, and you didn't say this word, but I'll sort of footnote, you were talking about a lot of technological choices, any of those lamps, that's technology. I realized in listening to you
Ryan K. Johnson: Yeah.
Christy Bolingbroke:….we're at such a penultimate moment where we have so many tools, both digital and physical, that perhaps right now virtuosity is in our creative decision making is in…
Ryan K. Johnson: Yes.
Christy Bolingbroke:…which, which choices? You don't use all the tools.
Ryan K. Johnson: Mm-hmm.
Christy Bolingbroke: You have to be really decisive. Just like in seasoning a, a, a well-crafted gumbo, right.
Ryan K. Johnson: [laughs] Yeah.
Christy Bolingbroke: You don't dump all the seasoning in. It's a little bit of this and a little less of that.
Ryan K. Johnson: Mm-hmm.
Christy Bolingbroke: 'cause it's about balance. Um,
Ryan K. Johnson: Yeah. And I mean…
Christy Bolingbroke: Thank you for helping me like find that.
Ryan K. Johnson: Yeah. I mean, and then you talk about temperature.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ryan K. Johnson: Right? So the arc of that work really follows the idea of a pot of boiling water.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mmm.
Ryan K. Johnson: Uh, the Baltimore me water, water. Y'all know what I'm talking about.
Christy Bolingbroke: Oh yeah. We're with you.
Ryan K. Johnson: Um, but um, you know, it begins with the water being in the pot and simmering.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm.
Ryan K. Johnson: That's the calling, right? And then as it starts to simmer, as that temperature rises, that calling is layered. More and more people. Now we're adding footwork, we're adding, call and response between myself and the dancers on multiple surfaces would have different textures.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ryan K. Johnson: But we all wind up ending on the main dance floor, which has its own sound, but then using, um, using musicality to play with the arc of the score. When is it loud, when is it solved, when is it impactful? When is it powerful? Where is it, when is it the undertone to the narration? How was it in conversation with the physical? How is the physical text of choreography connected to the verbal text of the book?
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ryan K. Johnson: And then how does that make us feel like a shift is happening?
Christy Bolingbroke: Yeah.
Ryan K. Johnson: It's about, it's literally about knowing not just how, how to, but when to, and I think that's what, what makes the art.
Christy Bolingbroke: It’s the when.
Ryan K. Johnson: Yeah.
Christy Bolingbroke: Yeah. It's the when that's pulling me in a different direction. 'cause when I, when I think about, you know. I dunno what your grandmother's name is, but now we're shorthand. I'm gonna call her Grandma
Ryan K. Johnson: Barbara Ann Jackson.
Christy Bolingbroke: All right. When I think about Barbara Ann Jackson, speak her name...
Ryan K. Johnson:Yes.
Christy Bolingbroke:…and cooking, she knew she needed to feed the family at the end of the day.
Ryan K. Johnson: Mm-hmm.
Christy Bolingbroke: Was this an all day initiative? Maybe? Was it a, you know, was only have four hours after church or whatever was going on on Sunday morning? Dance making is in a different economy of time. We're not just talking about days, we're talking about months, years…
Ryan K. Johnson: Years.
Christy Bolingbroke:…sometimes of simmering.
Ryan K. Johnson: ZAZ took almost eight years to make.
Christy Bolingbroke: So across those eight years, my question for others who are also trying to navigate a creative life, what do you do when you hit a creative rut? 'cause you also, it, it sometimes it's not always, inspiration isn't always coming or there's other outside forces like funding or availability, just only so much time in the day. When you reach some sort of impasse in the creative process, do you have any tools that you also use to, to sort of reset or, continue to move forward?
Ryan K. Johnson: Oh, there's so much I wanna say to that question because I think as artists, especially in practice that aren't operating with a commercial size budget, we feel that we're always having to do and always having to make. And you look at commercial shows or companies, you know, who are still doing the same work that they've been doing for 10, 15 years, right?
Christy Bolingbroke: 30. Lion King.
Ryan K. Johnson: Yeah.
Christy Bolingbroke: Right?
Ryan K. Johnson: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, Revelation, Ailey, Cirque de Soleil, the same thing. You know, like we look at these, you and I've realized that sometimes we put ourselves through this like emotional abuse almost, of having to always produce. And that it's okay to get a work to a point, see it, bring it to life, realize it, and be like, word. Okay. And then life goes on and you learn more and you experience more, you see more, you engage more, and you're like. Oh word. Let me look at this again.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm.
Ryan K. Johnson: And so, uh, back to that I, the ideology of Sankofa, that going backwards to go forward, it's kind of the process that I've gone through, with the making.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ryan K. Johnson: But then with the research for it, it's gone from this like big idea to this like space of investigation and searching, which then creates this small tunnel vision that then kind of opens up with new ideas and new creativity, and now I'm back at bigger questions.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm.
Ryan K. Johnson: And so it's like this big to small, small to big. Reaching back to come forward, knowing now, I mean, it's taken me a long time to get here. I'm still working on it, but also knowing when to rest.
Christy Bolingbroke: Hmm.
Ryan K. Johnson: And when to sit I mean, you're always telling me to sit down, you know, like we are actually…
Christy Bolingbroke: I’m just asking when you last sat down…
Ryan K. Johnson: Yeah.
Christy Bolingbroke: I don’t tell you to do anything.
[Both laugh]
Ryan K. Johnson: No. You correct, correct. Correct. I don't want people thinking that your boss would be around for rest. But you know, that's the type of care that we need to provide in the community for everyone you know, and I acknowledge that there is also a privilege in being able to sit and rest because we do work in, a very capitalistic,produce, produce, produce factory…
Christy Bolingbroke: Yeah.
Ryan K. Johnson:…called art., But I also think for quality of life, for the quality of art, for the human self, because. At the core, the arts are humanities
Christy Bolingbroke: Hmm.
Ryan K. Johnson:…and we have to find a way back to, to situating humanities forward. When I come to times when I've gone back to go forward or I've done the big to small, small to big, sometimes it's about reaching out to others that have a larger scope of genius. Or bringing in collaborators who have a different experience with art making that then can add to the ingredients of that gumbo and being receptive to it. Because, you know, as makers we we're, you know, I'm an artist and I'm sensitive about my, you know…
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ryan K. Johnson:…we all, we all know that, right?
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ryan K. Johnson: Um, but also understanding that when you have people around you who actually care about you, that the feedback and the sharing and their investment is really about care.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm.
Ryan K. Johnson: And so when I hit brick walls, I know that it's time for me to rest, uh, or it's time for me to put different eyes on it, or it's time for me to step away, or…
Christy Bolingbroke: It's telling you something else.
Ryan K. Johnson: It’s telling me something…
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ryan K. Johnson: But it's not a negative. I think we…
Christy Bolingbroke: Yeah,
Ryan K. Johnson: I think we've been conditioned for brick walls or those, those hard stops or those hard shifts to feel destructive.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ryan K. Johnson: And they're actually just repositioning us or telling us what we don't realize we need in that moment. And so being able to listen. And be vulnerable and take a break and take a beat is something that I'm still navigating. I don't wanna pretend because I'm doing this interview that I have it perfect because I'm still learning, you know? Yeah.
Christy Bolingbroke: It's all in process. It's um,
Ryan K. Johnson: It is. It's a living thing. It's a lot. Like choreography is alive. Art making is alive, and so it continues to breathe.
Christy Bolingbroke: Yes.
Ryan K. Johnson: And just like the body. The body needs rest. It needs food, it needs vacation, it needs fun, it needs joy. It needs grounding and right. And so it's no different than the human self.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ryan K. Johnson: And you just, you have to follow that journey and trust that process.
Christy Bolingbroke: We probably have talked about this before, but I'm gonna say it for the, for the people at home. Hearing you talk about listening to a creative block or impasse as, as feedback, as information that's trying to tell you something else. It reminds me of all places and people. Doug Piekarz, the executive director at the Akron Zoo told a group of arts admin students once, and he offered that work-life balance was a misnomer. That that's a fixed point in time, as if there's some sort of magic percentage of how much work and how much life you get to have [Laughs]. And instead he suggested, what if we all need to seek out what is our work-life rhythm?
Ryan K. Johnson: Mmm.
Christy Bolingbroke: And that's gonna be different. My rhythm might be different than your rhythm. I might not always keep the same tempo or rhythm because I need…
Ryan K. Johnson: Mm-hmm.
Christy Bolingbroke:…different things at different times. But this idea, I thought might, might speak to, you know, remind you as, as well as, uh, any of our listeners who are also grappling with these as real challenges is that it's not a, it's not a fixed stop. We are just trying to listen to what rhythm it's telling us to keep for the next minute…
Ryan K. Johnson: Mmm-hmm.
Christy Bolingbroke:…two minutes, two years, wherever that may be.
Ryan K. Johnson: You know, when, when we were in, when we saw each other at NPN in New Orleans, I think you, you shared this with me. That sat with me for a while because it really helped me better understand the expectation I had for myself and for the people that I work with.
Christy Bolingbroke:Mm.
Ryan K. Johnson: Right?
Christy Bolingbroke: Yeah.
Ryan K. Johnson: And so my rhythm. Could be at 220 BPMs beats per minute, you know.
Christy Bolingbroke: That's real fast, y'all [Johnson laughs]. If you're familiar with like The Era Footworking Crew, which I think works at 160 beats per minute, and, and that's fast. So 2, 200…
Ryan K. Johnson: Yeah. Or, or someone could be at a cool 90.
Christy Bolingbroke: Okay.
Ryan K. Johnson: Right. It doesn't mean that the productivity is different. It just means the approach and the rhythm of their life and the rhythm of their work. Is where they are.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm.
Ryan K. Johnson: And so when, when you told me this, it really helped me better lead the organization so defined. Um.
Christy Bolingbroke: Cool. I love that you also were able to put a number on it [Both laugh].
Ryan K. Johnson: Well, you know, I…
Christy Bolingbroke:….that's self-aware my friend.
Ryan K. Johnson: You know, it's, I, I, real quick. I, I'm really thinking about this. So there's this, this guy named David Pleasant, who I worked with many years ago. Brilliant, brilliant, percussive dance artist that connects percussive dance, specifically from the Gullah tradition to quantum physics and complementary energy.
Christy Bolingbroke: Cool.
Ryan K. Johnson: Which is something that I'm super interested in, right? Like the idea of something in percussive dance. There's something. Still in, in motion at the same time that produces something.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm.
Ryan K. Johnson: Right. So dance is physics, which we know, but like how do we use dance to take a deeper dive or connection with, you know, African cosmology? How do we take it to a deeper form of, sophisticated systems of mathematics and numbers and, you know, and I think that's one of the things that we do with percussive dance, especially at SOLE Defined, with our arts education program, connecting percussive dance with mathematics and connected with literacy, you know, Quynn Johnson, who, leads that part of SOLE Defined has been brilliant with those, those things.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ryan K. Johnson: And so, yes, dropping a, a BPM, it's weird 'cause I can hear a metronome and I can get pretty close to knowing where those BPMs lie or where they are. And I think it's just because, like, I have this, this passion to connect it beyond the stage or the studio, but like how we connect it to history, you know, on African American studies, how are we connecting it to physics? How are we connecting it to mathematics? How are we connecting it to lived experience and archival practices across cultural context, right?
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ryan K. Johnson: Like how is choreography, just one of the vehicles or one of the means to bringing in more ingredients from the world that we can find more intersecting parts and hopefully create beyond the stage.
Christy Bolingbroke: We have one more question for you.
Ryan K. Johnson: Okay.
Christy Bolingbroke: And you have two different options, how you wanna answer it. So…
Ryan K. Johnson: Oh boy.
Christy Bolingbroke:…in navigating a creative career, there is an opportunity and you've acknowledged some of the past people that you've worked with in groups and learned so much so is there a particular piece of advice that you received earlier on in your career that you'd like to pass on at this time?
Ryan K. Johnson: Mm-hmm.
Christy Bolingbroke: Or would you like to offer your own piece of advice for people who are finding their creative rhythm in navigating an artistic life?
Ryan K. Johnson: My mother, Dr. Vanessa Jackson, used to say to me, do what you love and everything will fall in place. And sometimes that's hard because what we love is not always valued by the, the world. So it comes with its ebbs and flows, but if you stay true to what you love, you will find the path that was written and created for yourself. I don't remember who told me this was either, it was either Gregory Hines or C. Brian Williams, from Step Africa.
Both amazing. Very thankful for time with both of them. One of them said to always be a sponge and absorb as much water as you can as you go through life. And I took that to mean, learn as much as you can from as many people.
Christy Bolingbroke: Hmm.
Ryan K. Johnson: And as I got older, water is peaceful, it's still, but it can move mountains and it can also bend and shape around obstacles. And if you can stay like water throughout your career, you'll find a level of peace through it all. And you'll also be hydrated and never thirsty.
Jennifer Edwards: Inside the Dancer’s Studio Conversation Series is produced by NCCAkron supported in part by Audio-Technica, a global audio manufacturer with U.S. headquarters in Northeast Ohio.' Our podcast program is produced by Lisa Niedermeyer of Handmade Future Studio. Rahsaan Cruz is our audio engineer, with transcription by Arushi Singh, theme music by Floco Torres, and cover art by Micah Kraus. Special thanks to Laura Ellacott, Nakiasha Moore-Dunson, Dante Fields, Jen Garlando, and Mariclare Hulbert. To learn more about NCCAkron, please visit us online at nccakron.org. And follow us on Instagram or Facebook at NCCAkron. We hope you enjoyed this episode, and we encourage you to subscribe on your favorite podcast streaming platform by searching for Inside the Dancer’s Studio. Thanks for listening and stay curious.