Professor Tipton is one of the world’s foremost Lighting Designers, most notably in the world of Dance. Born in Ohio, she studied English at Cornell University and dance in New York City. She has worked extensively on and off Broadway in opera and theatre and for many dance companies. Her awards include among many others the Jerome Robbins Prize in 2003, the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize in 2001, a Lifetime Achievement Obie for work off-Broadway, a Drama Desk and two Tony awards for work on Broadway and an Olivier Award in London for Twyla Tharp’s In the Upper Room. In April 2004, she received the Mayor’s Award for Arts and Culture in New York City.

Her recent work in opera includes Salvatore Sclarrino’s new opera Da Gelo A Gelo directed by Trisha Brown in Schwetzingen, Germany and Mozart’s The Magic Flute at La Monnaie, Brussels. Her recent work in dance includes Christopher Wheeidon’s Quaternary for the San Francisco Ballet, Trisha Brown’s O Composite for the Paris Opera Ballet , Paul Taylor’s Banquet of Cultures at City Centre in New York and Shen Wei’s RE at the American Dance Festival. In theatre her recent work includes Marcus Gardley’s Dance of the Holy Ghosts: a play on memory at the Yale Repertory Theatre directed by Liz Diamond, The Moon for the Misbegotten at Hartford Stage Company, original production directed by Gordon Edelstein at Longwharf Stage in New Haven, Connecticut, USA and Hamlet for the Wooster Group with an opening in Barcelona, Spain.

Professor Tipton was invited to the Academy in 2003 where she gave a weeklong intensive lighting workshop for the School of Technical Arts and School of Dance. While maintaining an active professional career, she is also engaged as Professor of Lighting at Yale University.