Last summer at Little Island in New York City, Payton Johnson danced a solo in Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber's Seven Scenes. It was her first time onstage in two years. She moved between pinpoint precision and abandon, at once elemental and undeniably human—a young woman moving on instinct, with what colleagues describe as a spellbinding presence.

Johnson, 27, is a freelance dancer and stager for the choreographic duo Smith and Or Schraiber. Offstage, she brings the same focus to restaging their works at companies and schools across three continents.

She grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, training at Jean Leigh Academy of Dance on the competition and convention circuit—"more dance as a sport," she recalls. An after-hours improv jam at The Juilliard School's summer program convinced her to pursue her BFA there. "Juilliard really cracked me open, but I felt I couldn't acknowledge all the things I had learned in the convention world," she says. "That setting gave me the foundations that I still use, picking things up quickly, using all these different styles." Today she judges at Press Play Dance Convention.

Her path took a sharp turn after graduation. While working with Kyle Abraham on material for a Royal Ballet commission, Johnson saw the choreographer send a rehearsal video of her to Benjamin Millepied. Millepied invited her to take company class with L.A. Dance Project. Within two weeks, she had moved to Los Angeles to join the company mid-season.

The stay was brief and bruising. Johnson danced with LADP from February 2022 to August 2023, a period that included a seven-month break caused by injuries, autoimmune issues, and burnout. At the end of her contract, she told Smith and Schraiber: "I'm done. I'm never dancing again."

Staging became the bridge back. Smith had taught Johnson at Juilliard, and the two reconnected at LADP when Smith and Schraiber set work on the company. Before returning to New York City, Johnson offered to help the duo stage Fugue in Crimson at Juilliard. She has since staged their works at Oregon Ballet Theatre and Rambert, helped them develop movement for the Hollywood film The Bride!—which she also danced in—and performed in their Satyagraha at Paris Opéra.

The return to the stage in Seven Scenes tested her. "I had so much anxiety leading up to it, because the last time that I had performed, my body completely crashed and it started this whole health journey," she says. "The work I had to do to step into that role and embrace all of the fears of failing—I was really proud of myself for doing that work to feel strong again."

Smith, for her part, sees a performer of rare qualities. "She's always had a fire inside her," Smith says. "I am constantly in awe of her: her sense of humor, her specificity, her musicality, and her generosity—both to others and to the work itself."

This spring, Johnson spent three months in Paris dancing in Satyagraha at Paris Opéra—"the longest I've been in one spot in three years," she says. After years of living out of a suitcase, her priorities are shifting. "Finding a home base is the next thing that I'm working towards."

She remains open to new projects, including possibly joining a company again, but her goals are simpler now. "Number one on my bucket list is to just be healthy," she says. "I just have to keep focusing on myself, and releasing, and then maybe things beyond my dreams will hopefully continue to come my way." With credits spanning Juilliard, Rambert, Oregon Ballet Theatre, and Paris Opéra before the age of 30, that release may already be working.