Tom Visser

Tom (Thomas Anthony) Visser is an established light designer specialized in dance since 2003. Critics have often eulogized his contribution to the atmosphere and excellence of dance performances for which he has created light designs, which can turn “a simple set into what feels like fractured, dangerous territory…” (The New York Times), create “amazing worlds and apocalyptical images…” (seeingdance.com), “painterly lighting” (Financial Times), or frame “the piece intensely” (broadwayworld.com).

Visser grew up in the countryside of west Ireland and in 1998, at the age of 18, started working in theatre. In 2003 he joined Nederlands Dans Theater and since then has been primarily creating designs in the field of dance. Since then, has created the lighting design for multiple Olivier Award (best new dance production) winners including Crystal Pite, Alexander Ekman, Hofesh Shechter, Johan Inger, the Royal Swedish Ballet Stockholm and the Göteborgs Operans Danskompani, Den Norske Ballet, the Spain’s Companía Nacional de Danza, Ballet Vlaanderen, the Sydney Dance Company, Paris Opera Ballet, Canada’s National Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance Company Chicago and Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo. Visser has worked particularly often with Alexander Ekman, including on Flockwork (2006) and A Swan Lake (2014), and with Crystal Pite, including on The Season’s Canon (2016) with the Paris Opera Ballet and Flight Pattern (2017) with the Royal Ballet in London. For Johan Inger, he created the lighting for Carmen and for Out of Breath (2002), which was performed at the Stuttgart Ballet in 2019.