Travis Payne - Life and Career

Life and Career

Payne was born in Atlanta with a natural talent and began dancing at the age 4. He began formal training at the age of 9 where he studied at Norma's Academy of Dance under the direction of the late Norma B. Mitchell and her daughter Djana Bell. In 1984, Payne went to Northside School of the Arts, and studied under the direction of William G Densmore and performed in Atlanta's Showbiz Kids. He then joined the Harrison Dance company under the direction of Gary Harrison before moving to Los Angeles where he soon met longtime personal idols Kenny Ortega, Michael Peters, Debbie Allen, and Paula Abdul.

Payne's big break came at the age of 19 after he created a dance video of himself which helped him land his first major gig as part of Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814 World Tour. From the moment he performed on stage, his talent for dancing was obvious and immediately started fielding offers to work with Prince, Debbie Allen, En Vogue, TLC, and Michael Jackson on his Dangerous World Tour. While working with Jackson extensively, Payne began to see the entire creative process close-up, and soon began to choreograph for such major acts as Madonna, Sting, Lenny Kravitz, Faith Hill, Jennifer Lopez, Ricky Martin, Britney Spears, Usher Raymond IV and Beyoncé. Payne also choreographed the debut music video for Nicole Scherzinger of the Pussycat Dolls, and re-teamed with Scherzinger to provide the artistic direction for her critically acclaimed performances on both the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards and So You Think You Can Dance. In 2008, Payne choreographed a tribute segment to Michael Jackson which included Omarion on the television series Dancing with the Stars.

In May 2009, Payne started to work with Michael Jackson and Kenny Ortega on This Is It which was a sold-out series of fifty concerts by Jackson to be held at The O2 Arena in London. These were Jackson's first significant concert events since the HIStory World Tour in 1997 and had been cited as one of the year's most important musical events, with over one million people attending in total. Unfortunately, the concert series was canceled due to Jackson's untimely demise. On July 7, 2009, Payne helped choreograph the Michael Jackson memorial service at the Staples Center in Los Angeles which was broadcast live around the world, from the U.S. to Slovakia to parts of Asia, with an estimated one billion viewers. Following the months after Jackson's passing, Payne worked very closely with Ortega to piece together rehearsal footage from Michael Jackson's This Is It which was put together from rough footage recorded at the Los Angeles Forum and the Staples Center. Subsequently, the film was released worldwide with a limited two-week theatrical run from October 28, to November 12, 2009. Tickets went on sale a month early on September 27, 2009, to satisfy a high anticipated demand; to date, the film has broken numerous records via tickets both pre-sale and sales worldwide.

In December 2009, Payne also choreographed Lady Gaga on the The Monster Ball Tour as well as provided direction for her performances on the 2009 American Music Awards, The Jay Leno Show, and Ellen. He also worked with Mariah Carey on her "H.A.T.E.U." video. To round out the year, he traveled to Japan to work with SMAP and choreograph a Michael Jackson Tribute which was aired on TV for the New Year's Eve special.

In January 2010, Payne embarked on a peace tour and arranged a surprise visit to the Cebu province of the Philippines to work with the CPDRC Dancing Inmates of the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC), a maximum security that is also featured in the Michael Jackson Opus. Famous for their "Thriller" which received 300,000 views per day at its peak, the video has received over 37 million reported views and is considered one of the most viral videos viewed on the internet. Payne along with "This Is It" dancers Daniel Celebre (aka Da FunkyMystic) and Dres Reid taught over 1500 dancing inmates to perform "The Drill" as part of the song "They Don't Care About Us" and was video taped to coincide with the "This Is It" DVD & Blu-ray release on January 25, 2010. The clip went live on YouTube, Yahoo and TMZ and immediately captured more than 3 million views within 1 week of its release online.

In April 2010, Payne was honored by The Michael Jackson Tribute Portrait, the largest Michael Jackson tribute in the world, endorsed by the Jackson Family Foundation. The tribute is an interactive work of art by artist David Ilan, which is made from one million hand drawn dots. Friends and family of Jackson's get a dot in their name in the area of Jackson's heart.

In October 2010, CBS announced that Payne would join Kimberly Wyatt and Executive producer, Lead Judge and Personal Idol Paula Abdul on the judges panel for her new dance competition and reality show Live to Dance. CBS describes the series as broadcast television's first all-ages, all-genres dance series that is based on Sky 1's UK dance show Got to Dance. The different acts will compete for a $500,000 prize in front of the panel of judges, and viewers will eventually get to vote for their favorite dancers during the semifinal and final rounds. Live to Dance kicks off with a two-hour special January 4 before moving to its regular hour-long slot Wednesdays, starting January 5.

Payne also choreographed for Hong Kong singer, Andy Lau along with Stacy Walker for the Andy Lau Unforgettable Concert 2010 throughout the year. In addition, he also worked with Han Geng to choreograph the singer's titletrack for his first solo album, along with four other dancers from This Is It. When the album promotions arose, Payne performed with the singer and the dancers on various Chinese variety and talk shows as the opening.

In November 2010 Payne was seen on Michael Jackson's The Experience on Dance School. In 2013, Payne started work in Japan with the Johnny's Entertainment.