Rush

Rush Johnston (b. 2000) is a multimedia choreographer, performer, filmmaker, and movement researcher. Rush creates at the intersection of visual and performing art, often exploring modes of artistic expression beyond the binary. Their work often plays with perception and identity, inviting viewers to question proposed truths of self and social misunderstanding. Social justice work is a key element of Rush’s creative vision, often encompassing themes of political turmoil, queerness, and mental health. 

Rush’s choreographic work has found a home within a multitude of concert and commercial dance settings, even reaching beyond the stage to include photography and dance film. Their first self-choreographed solo work, “Nothingness” (2017) went on to receive an honorable mention for choreography in the National Dance Educators Organization’s 2018 national scholarship award. They have had works selected to perform at venues across the United States from the Koresh Artists Showcase and International Dance Festival in Philadelphia, PA to the NDEO National Conference in San Diego, CA. Rush has most recently entered the realm of dance film, and their directing debut “Ever and Anon,” was selected for the Dare to Dance in Public Film Festival, making its global premier in Los Angeles, CA this January. Rush enjoys collaborating with musicians and movers of the free improvisation community, as well as advocating for change in the dance community in all of their creative work. 

They graduated from the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities in 2018 and recently earned their BFA in Dance at the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University. During their time at Peabody they have worked with renowned artists such as Danielle Agami, Yin Yue, and Katherine Helen Fisher, as well as Jennifer Archibald, Jacob Jonas, and Kyle Abraham through their summer dance intensives. 

Rush is deeply passionate about accessibility and community engagement in all forms of their artistic practice. In 2017, they founded the Confi-DANCE project in Greenville, SC to provide creative movement workshops to at-risk youth. They currently serve as the volunteer dance editor for the literary arts magazine Carolina Muse. As a newly certified yoga instructor, as well as a dance teacher and creator, Rush is working to reimagine accessibility to dance virtually in the midst of the global pandemic. 

Rush is the founder and artistic director of Kaleid Movement Collective, an interdisciplinary artistic platform for creative experiments and exhibitions.