artistic & production credits san francisco ballet london tour sadler's ...

DAVID FINN
LIGHTING DESIGNER
David Finn’s professional career as a lighting designer began at the age of sixteen, working for
the puppeteer Burr Tillstrom, creator of “Kukla, Fran and Ollie.”
In 1989, he designed Sir Peter Wright’s The Nutcracker for The Birmingham Royal Ballet with
designer John MacFarlane, a p roduction which continues to be produced on three continents
each y ear. I n 2 010, ag ain w ith M acFarlane and t he B RB, h e d esigned a ne w p roduction
of Cinderella for David Bintley. Finn h as d esigned d ance works f or: The A ustralian Ballet,
American Ballet Theatre, Royal Ballet, Lyon Opera Ballet, Monte-Carlo Ballet, Houston Ballet,
National Ballet of Canada, Paul Taylor Dance Company, Twyla Tharp & Dancers, Sasha Waltz
& Gu ests, O DC, and the P aris O pera B allet w ith such ac claimed c horeographers as : P aul
Taylor, Twyla T harp, J ames K udelka, Sasha W altz, J oachim Schloemmer, and T amasaburo
Bando. As resident lighting designer for Mikhail Baryshnikov’s White Oak Dance Project from
1993 t o 2000, F inn d esigned l ighting f or w orks b y M erce C unningham, H anya H olm, José
Limon, Dana Reitz, Charles Moulton, Karole Armitage, and many others.
Finn’s w ork f or S an F rancisco B allet i ncludes: H elgi T omasson’s Aurora Polaris, Sonata,
Concerto Grosso, 7 for Eight, and Valses Poeticos; J ames K udelka’s Some Women and
Men and Terra Firma; Yuri Posskhov’s Reflections, Firebird, and Diving into the Lilacs; and
Renato Zanella's Underskin.
Finn h as d esigned e xtensively f or opera c ompanies, i ncluding: S an Francisco Opera, R oyal
Opera, Stuttgart Opera, The Salzburg Festival, The Paris Opera, The New York City Opera, The
Scottish Opera, Opera de Lyon, La Monnaie (Brussels), Liceu (Barcelona), Het Musiektheater
(Amsterdam), G eneva Op era, H annover Op er, Wiener Festwochen, S teirischerbst ( Graz),
Opera North (Leeds), Glimmerglass Opera, The Edinburgh Festival, and Flemish Opera.
Finn’s film work includes lighting design for stage scenes in Martin Scorcese’s The Age of
Innocence. H e d irected a d ocumentary f ilm for P OV on P BS, The Green Monster, which
became part of the Museum of Television and Radio’s B est Documentary Series i n 1999. In
October 2008, Finn finished work on a new permanent production for Cirque du Soleil, ZED,
in Tokyo, Japan.
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