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Ariyan Johnson
Ariyan Johnson, a native New Yorker, is a graduate of LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, where she studied dance; she holds a BA from Lehman College in speech pathology and audiology and an MA in applied theatre from CUNY School of Professional Studies. She is a multidisciplinary artist, a pioneer of hip hop dance, an award-winning filmmaker and an Independent Spirit Award Best Female Lead-nominated actress for the first female hip hop coming-of-age story – Just Another Girl on the I.R.T. Some other credits include Bulworth, where she depicted a rapper influencing hip hop culture onto the political landscape and a series regular on The Steve Harvey Show. As a professional dancer, she has danced, choreographed and toured worldwide for an array of artists such as LL Cool J, Salt-N-Pepa, Queen Latifah, Chaka Khan, Ms. Melodie, Ya Kid K, 2 in a Room, Mary J Blige, SWV and many more. A former member of Abdel Salaam’s Forces of Nature Dance Theatre and Ronn Pratt’s Alpha Omega Theatrical Dance Companies where she began her site-specific work exploring jazz-based dances of protest with Eleo Pomare’s Dancemobile. As artistic director of Faithful Dance Company, she created interactive performances at Faithful Central Bible Church’s 18,000-seated arena. Currently, she is an assistant professor of Dance at University of California, Irvine.
Contact: Department of Dance, Claire Trevor School of the Arts, University of California, Irvine, 300 Mesa Arts Building Irvine, CA 92697-2775, USA.