Artist Profile: Quynn Johnson Helps Bring Tap Dance Centerstage in ‘Diary Of A Tap Dancer’

For professional tap dancer and educator Quynn Johnson, tap dance is a never ending process.

“There are levels of tap dance that for me still have yet to be unlocked, and there is a lot of work that I have to do to unlock those energies and emotions and exploration for myself. So anytime that I get to put the shoes on, it’s an opportunity to unlock those things,” Johnson said in an interview with The Crimson.

Born and raised in Flint, Mich., Johnson started tap dance at the age of five, at the behest of her parents. The youngest of three girls, Johnson was put in tap dance by her parents so she could follow in the footsteps of her sisters. They studied at Creative Expressions Dance Studio under Alfred “Bruce” Bradley, who has been Johnson’s main tap teacher throughout her life. Her sisters eventually moved away from tap dance, but Johnson stuck with it.

As Johnson kept dancing throughout her early life, she came to love it deeply. She would dance everywhere: in the grocery store, in the mall, sitting in church or at school — in her words, “My feet was always moving.” When it came to choosing tap dance as a career, it wasn’t so much a Eureka moment as it was happenstance. Johnson took a pivotal step on the road towards a career in tap when she was in college.

“I needed income. And so I was like, maybe I should teach. A friend of mine shared with me a studio that was looking for a tap teacher so I started teaching there, teaching tap, to so many kids, and I really just fell in love with it — and it became a career,” she said.

Education is a major part of Johnson’s company, Sole Defined, which she co-founded with performing artist Ryan Johnson. Sole Defined has two branches — one which is devoted to putting on live shows, and another which goes around the world teaching students literacy and math skills through tap dance. Sole Defined aims to integrate the arts with traditional academics by using tap as an educational tool.

“We’re able to tap into students’ background knowledge about different things that just sitting in a classroom and learning things by rote memorization doesn’t always hit. So using the arts, or using elements of tap dance like beat and rhythm and choreography and improvisation, and allowing them to physically embody the things that they’re learning academically in movement just adds another layer of understanding for them,” she said.

Currently, Johnson is in rehearsals for “Diary of A Tap Dancer,” which premieres at the American Repertory Theater on Dec. 18. Being back in the Boston area is a full circle moment for Johnson, who graduated from Harvard’s Graduate School of Education in 2022 — making the show a sort of reunion.

“Diary of a Tap Dancer” was written and choreographed by Ayodele Casel and is directed by Torya Beard. Johnson has known the pair for a few years, and she was delighted by the invitation to audition for the show. The production is largely Ayodele Casel’s diary of her own life, both in and out of tap. It explores how tap has informed her growth in life, and vice versa. “Diary of a Tap Dancer” also aims to bring to light many tap artists, particularly women, who have been unjustly erased from history.

Johnson is delighted at the fact that the show brings tap to center stage by telling its story almost entirely through tap dance, especially as she perceives that tap has been sidelined as a dance style in recent times.

“As a tap dancer, you are both dancer and musician at the same time. We are literally creating the music that you are hearing, and we can do this with musical accompaniment or without. But what's been happening for the past few years is that tap dance can become a novelty act. So it's just like the one little ‘Oh let’s put a tap dance piece in this performance,’ and then that's it. There is no attention to the proper flooring, proper mics, the needs that a tap dancer might need to be able to accomplish, the things that we want to accomplish,” she said.

“Diary of a Tap Dancer” — as is heavily suggested by the title — is completely immersed in the world of tap. With original music and a fascinatingly constructed set, containing levels and circular platforms which the dancers fluidly move between, the whole production was made in service of the dancers. The project is also a committedly collaborative effort — as Casel narrates the story, different dancers enter to embody what she speaks about, often until the stage is full. While “Diary of a Tap Dancer” functions as a diary, some of the scenes function as love letters to tap dance and tap dancers as a whole.

When asked what she hopes audiences take from the show, Johnson said, “I hope that they are more inquisitive and curious about the tap dancers that are being named, about the tap — specifically the female tap — dancers that have been erased, and get curious about who they are. Why have they been erased? And also to be curious about their own story, and just acknowledgement that tap dance has been a huge foundation for the performing arts as it is.”

“Diary of a Tap Dancer” runs at the A.R.T. from Dec. 12 to Jan. 4.