Lorin Johnson, Assistant Professor at California State University, Long Beach, began his training at the Pacific Dance Theatre with Richard Gibson before becoming a full-scholarship student at the San Francisco Ballet School. 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 and creating original roles in ballets by Ulysses Dove, Clark Tippet and Agnes DeMille, among others. He 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 National Dance Theatre of Bermuda.

Johnson's choreographic work has been seen both in the US and abroad, and he has been commissioned to create works for such companies as South Bay Ballet, Ventura County Ballet, Festival Ballet Theatre, and Ballet Pacifica. His work has also been seen in such prestigious dance festivals as: The Laguna Dance Festival, directed by Jodie Gates; SOLA, directed by Regina Klenjoski; and at the Fabbrica Europa Dance Festival in Florence, Italy. He has been choreographer and teacher in Residence at such universities as Skidmore College in New York, and has been guest choreographer for the Orange County High School of the Arts (OCHSA) and Long Beach City College, as well as creating several premieres for the Dance Department at California State University, Long Beach. Johnson has choreographed five original works for the American Ballet Theatre Summer Intensive program. In 2003, Johnson directed and choreographed an evening of dance for the annual dance festival at the Fabbrica Europa in Florence, Italy. Sergio Trombetta, the dance critic for Danza & Danza , wrote that Johnson's ballet, Moto-Bio: Bodies in Movement, was “a work of extraordinary interest.” Johnson has choreographed for both opera and live orchestra, and in 2008 choreographed the full-length opera L'Orfeo for the CSULB Opera Institute in collaboration with LA Opera director, Thor Steingraber. Most recently he created an original interpretation of Beethoven'sThe Creatures of Prometheus for the New West Symphony, conducted by Boris Brott.

Johnson has been on faculty of the American Ballet Theatre Summer Intensives program since 2004. He has taught in many universities and schools in Southern California, including the California Institute of the Arts and the University of California, Irvine. In 2005 Johnson was the Academy Director of the Ballet Pacifica Academy in Irvine, California. In 2006 he became an Assistant Professor of Dance at California State University, Long Beach, where he teaches courses in ballet technique, composition and dance appreciation/history. Johnson is active in researching and writing on dance history and has published articles in such academic journals as Muzyka and Experiment. He has B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of Southern California.

Download Choreography Reel (excerpts 2006-2008)