Relationships Between Choreographers and Lighting Designers

The traditional relationship between light and dance has tended to be one in which the choreographer has created the dance and the lighting designer has then 'lit the box' in which the work will be presented.  In recent years however, the relationship between designer and choreographer has started to become much more of a creative dialogue where the lighting design is a major creative element in the choreographic process.  There are now several high profile collaborative partnerships - Russell Maliphant and Michael Hulls, Lucy Carter and Wayne McGregor, Guy Hoare and Henri Oguike are perhaps the most well known examples at present.  

When asked what makes a good lighting designer Michael Hulls reply is tongue in cheek, '...The eyes of a painter, the hands of a sculpture and the soul of a poet.'    http://www.worlddanceuk.com/content.asp?CategoryID=462&ArticleID=346

It is clear from his description that Hulls believes that his role as a lighting designer is fundamentally creative and in the collaboration that he shares with Maliphant both artists acknowledge that the lighting often acts as a starting point for the choreographic process.  Maliphant describes Hulls as an architect of space, '...the space is always changing, opening up or closing down.  It's like breathing' (ibid).  The result is a creative dialogue between light and movement where the dance and the light can't exist without one another.

Lucy Carter has worked regularly for a handful of top British dance makers including Charles Linehan and Shobana Jeyasingh and what each choreographer wants from her lighting varies dramatically.  In common with Hulls she sees the process of lighting design as a creative one saying, '...I don't see the lighting as a technical thing...I ignore that side until I have my ideas and concepts' (ibid). As a result Carter does not always keep up to date with technological advancement within the industry.

The Finnish designer Mikki Kunttu has worked closely with the Swedish choreographer Tero Saarinen and both describe the relationship as an open dialogue.  Discussing the body of work the pair have created Kunttu says, '...We're doing our own thing...without any history or reference to anything else...Every time we start a new creation we start from nothing' (ibid).  Kunttu is modest about his own contribution to the final choreography stating that her lighting should not be too highly valued because, '...by itself it's nothing' (ibid).    

Image above by Chris Nash shows Henri Oguike in his solo dance Expression Lines with lighting by Guy Hoare and is available at www.ballet.co.uk/images/henri_oguike/cn_expression_lines_henri_oguike_back_view_downlite_500.jpg