Jennifer Tipton

Jennifer Tipton is considered to be one of the most authoritative figures in the field of American light design. Trained at Cornell University, she closely investigated during activity as dancer and ballet-mistress the interactive effects of dance and lighting, to the point at which she made this aspect of stage art her special subject. For many decades she has collaborated with important ballet companies, including the ensembles of Paul Taylor und Twyla Tharp, the American Ballet Theatre and the Joffrey Ballet, and created lighting designs for George Balanchine, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Jiří Kylián, Dana Reitz, Jerome Robbins, Paul Taylor, Twyla Tharp, Dan Wagoner and Trisha Brown. In the opera sector she created among others the lighting for Robert Wilson’s »Parsifal« at the Houston Grand Opera and Peter Sellars’s »Tannhäuser« at the Chicago Light Opera. Among the numerous prizes awarded to Jennifer Tipton are Tonys for the Broadway productions of »The Cherry Orchard« (1977) and »Jerome Robbins’ Broadway« (1989), a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lighting Design, the Dorothy and Lilian Gish Prize, the Mayor’s Award for Arts and Culture and the MacArthur Genius Grant. In 2008 she was admitted not only to the circle of the McArthur Fellows, but also of the USA Artist Gracie Fellows. Since 1981 Jennifer Tipton has been Professor of Lighting Design at the Yale University School of Drama.