Noted dance lighting designer Clifton Taylor, whose recent dance design work has been commissioned in Russia, China, France, Chile, the UK, and Indonesia—as well as throughout the United States, curated the symposium, CLIFTalks at LDI2017, about the state-of-the-art of dance lighting, production, and touring. He is the resident designer for several NY-based contemporary dance companies and he has also designed works for the Boston Ballet, the San Francisco Ballet, ABT, Paul Taylor American Dance Theater, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and many others.
The format of the CLIFTalks comprises short, compelling talks by leading designers in the dance world as they share their insights and inspiration. In this video, lighting designer Christina Giannelli moderates this panel discussion on Lighting Design at the LED Event Horizon with freelance lighting designer Robert Wierzel and Christopher Dennis, production director for San Francisco Ballet.
Christina R. Giannelli has created lighting for new ballets by Julia Adam, Christopher Bruce, Jorma Elo, Donald McHale, Kenneth McMillan, Trey McIntyre, Dennis Nahat, Ben Stevenson, Glen Tetley, Natalie Weir, and Stanton Welch, as well as contemporary works by Houston based choreographers Teresa Chapman, Sara Draper, Karen Stokes, Dominic Walsh, Jennifer Wood, among others. She has designed extensively for ballet, opera and theater companies through out the United States and abroad and has served as Resident Lighting Designer for Houston Grand Opera, Cleveland-San Jose Ballet, Texas Ballet Theater, Houston Ballet and the Metropolitan Opera’s 2011/2012 season. She takes great pride in the recreation of repertory and delights in lighting new works and productions that blend multiple art forms. Upcoming projects include a new Swan Lake for Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Loving Clara with Mercury-The Orchestra, an interactive lighting experience for a public loggia in San Francisco, and UNLOCK’D, a new musical. She is the founder of Dance Source Houston, a service organization that supports and promotes Contemporary Dance in Houston, TX, and is currently creating a residence there for visiting artists.
Lighting designer Robert Wierzel has worked in theatre, dance, contemporary music, and opera on stages around the world, from the opera companies of Paris-Garnier (Les Indes Galantes); Tokyo (Opera Chushingura); Toronto; Kristiansand & Bergen, Norway; Folk Opera, Sweden; New York City Opera; Glimmerglass Festival; Seattle; Boston Lyric; Minnesota; San Francisco; Houston; Washington National; Virginia; Chicago Lyric; Opera Theatre of Chicago; Montreal; Vancouver; Florida Grand; Portland; Colorado; Pittsburgh; Wolf Trap; San Diego; Virginia and Gotham Chamber Opera among others. His theatre work has been seen on and off Broadway, including the play Lady Day At Emerson’s Bar & Grill, starring Audra McDonald; and the musical Fela! for which he received a Tony Award nomination. He has also enjoyed a long collaboration (32 years) with choreographer & director Bill T. Jones and the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company.
Christopher Dennis served as the Resident Lighting Designer and Lighting Coordinator at The National Ballet of Canada for 14 seasons, before joining San Francisco Ballet as Technical Director in 2010, where he is currently Production Director. He has created memorable and evocative lighting designs for many of the National Ballet’s productions, including Aszure Barton’s Watch her, James Kudelka’s Cinderella, Matjash Mrozewski’s A Delicate Battle and Jean-Pierre Perreault’s The Comforts of Solitude. His work for San Francisco Ballet includes Yuri Possokhov’s The Rite of Spring, Francesca da Rimini and RAkU, Optimistic Tragedy, as well as Helgi Tomasson’s Trio and Caprice.