Lorin Johnson began his training at the Pacific Dance Theatre before becoming a full-scholarship student at the San Francisco Ballet School. He trained in San Francisco with such influential teachers as: Richard Gibson, Yehuda Maor, Tina Santos, Daniel Simmons, Larisa Sklyanskaya, Helen Coope, Henry Berg, Richard Cammack, Zola Dishong, Christine Bering, and Anatole Vilzak. He danced with the San Francisco Ballet under the directorship of Helgi Tomasson from 1986-1987 before joining the American Ballet Theatre in New York in 1987 under the directorship of Mikhail Baryshnikov. Johnson performed at ABT until 1995, including dancing eight seasons at the Metropolitan Opera House, touring nationally and internationally and performing in “Live from Lincoln Center” broadcasts. Johnson created original roles in ballets by such renowned choreographers as Ulysses Dove, Clark Tippet and Agnes DeMille, among others, and has worked with some of the 20th century’s most influential choreographers, including Glen Tetley, Kenneth Macmillan, Twyla Tharp, and Jerome Robbins. He has also performed as a guest artist with such companies as The New York City Ballet and the Pacific Northwest Ballet.

Johnson's choreographic work has been described as "dynamic" and "electrifying" and has seen both in the US and abroad. He has been commissioned to create works for such companies as South Bay Ballet, Ventura County Ballet, and Festival Ballet Theatre, among others. His work has also been presented in such dance festivals as: the Fabbrica Europa Dance Festival in Florence, Italy; Celebrate Dance 2010; the Orange County Performing Arts Center’s Invitational Dance Festival; the Laguna Dance Festival, directed by Jodie Gates; SOLA, directed by Regina Klenjoski; and the Dance Under the Stars Choreography Festival in Palm Springs. He has been artist in residence at such universities as Skidmore College in New York, and at the Orange County High School of the Arts (OCHSA) in Southern California. Johnson has choreographed on the American Ballet Theatre Studio Company for the 2005 Ballet Pacifica Academy production of The Nutcracker and has created seven original works for the American Ballet Theatre Summer Intensive program since 2004. In 2003, Sergio Trombetta, the dance critic for Danza & Danza , wrote that Johnson's premiere for the Fabbrica Europa Dance Festival, Moto-Bio: Bodies in Movement, was “a work of extraordinary interest,” and the Glendale News Press reported that Johnson's work, My Breath Comes Differently, was "the best performance" in Celebrate Dance 2010. In 2008 Johnson choreographed the full-length opera L'Orfeo for the CSULB Opera Institute in collaboration with LA Opera director, Thor Steingraber, and has also created an original interpretation of Beethoven's The Creatures of Prometheus for the New West Symphony's 2008 season .

In 2009, Johnson founded Body Current Dance, a contemporary dance company based in Southern California which has already enjoyed invitations from throughout Southern California. Johnson is currently an Assistant Professor in the Dance Department at California State University, Long Beach, where he teaches courses in ballet technique and composition. His writings on dance have been published in Dance International magazine and in such academic journals as Experiment and Musyka. He has B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of Southern California.

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