Payton Johnson’s dancing is a tempest of opposites. In a solo in Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber’s Seven Scenes at Little Island in New York Metropolis final summer season, she moved seamlessly between pinpoint precision and breathtaking abandon. Her efficiency was directly elemental, like she was animated by forces of nature, and undeniably human—a younger girl shifting on intuition, albeit with an enviable sense of musicality and a spellbinding presence. Offstage, she brings that very same focus and intention as a stager for Smith and Schraiber’s work.
Position: Freelance dancer and stager for Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber
Age: 27
Hometown: Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Coaching: Jean Leigh Academy of Dance, The Juilliard College
Accolades: Senior Nationwide Title at The Dance Awards
Comp child to Juilliard: Rising up in southern Louisiana on the conference circuit was “extra dance as a sport,” Johnson recollects. However attending The Juilliard College’s summer season program, and specifically an after-hours improv jam hosted by an RA, made her decided to go there for her BFA. “Juilliard actually cracked me open, however I felt I couldn’t acknowledge all of the issues I had discovered within the conference world. That setting gave me the foundations that I nonetheless use, choosing issues up rapidly, utilizing all these completely different kinds.” At the moment, she serves as a choose at Press Play Dance Conference.
Relocating: Postgraduation, whereas she was working with Kyle Abraham to develop materials for a Royal Ballet fee, the choreographer despatched a rehearsal video of her to Benjamin Millepied, who then invited her to take an organization class with L.A. Dance Undertaking. Inside two weeks, she moved to Los Angeles to hitch the corporate mid-season.
Strolling away: Johnson finally was solely with LADP from February 2022 to August 2023, which included a seven-month break resulting from a mix of injuries, autoimmune points, and burnout. On the finish of her contract, “I remember telling Bobbi and Or, ‘I’m finished. I’m by no means dancing once more,’ ” she says.
Changing into a stager: Smith taught Johnson at Juilliard, and so they reconnected at LADP when Smith and Schraiber set work on the corporate. Earlier than she returned to New York Metropolis, Johnson reached out providing to assist the duo stage Fugue in Crimson at Juilliard. She’s since staged their works at Oregon Ballet Theatre and Rambert; helped them develop motion for the Hollywood movie The Bride!, which Johnson danced in; and carried out of their Satyagraha at Paris Opéra.
A shock return: Dancing in Smith and Schraiber’s Seven Scenes marked her first time onstage in two years. “I had a lot anxiousness main as much as it, as a result of the final time that I had carried out, my physique utterly crashed and it began this complete well being journey,” she says. “The work I needed to do to step into that function and embrace the entire fears of failing—I used to be actually happy with myself for doing that work to really feel sturdy once more.”
What Bobbi Jene Smith is saying: “She’s at all times had a hearth inside her. I’m continually in awe of her: her humorousness, her specificity, her musicality, and her generosity—each to others and to the work itself.”
A pause in Paris: The three months Johnson spent in Paris this spring as a dancer in Satyagraha at Paris Opéra was “the longest I’ve been in a single spot in three years,” she says. After dwelling out of a suitcase for thus lengthy, “Discovering a house base is the following factor that I’m working in direction of.”
Open to what comes: Whereas Johnson stays interested by new initiatives, together with the opportunity of becoming a member of an organization once more, “primary on my bucket listing is to simply be wholesome,” she says. Her latest profession experiences have already been past the scope of something she’d imagined. “I simply must hold specializing in myself, and releasing, after which possibly issues past my desires will hopefully proceed to return my means.”
