Bio
Joseph R. Walls is a professional lighting designer, creating and collaborating on hundreds of designs for dance, theatre, opera, corporate events, theme parks, and cruise ships. Walls has served as the general manager, production manager, and lighting supervisor for Complexions Contemporary Ballet; lighting director for Atlanta Ballet; lighting supervisor for The Washington Ballet; lighting supervisor for the Inland Pacific Ballet, resident lighting designer for The Charlotte Ballet and Chautauqua Dance, and lighting associate for Ballet West. He is currently the resident lighting designer for Orlando Ballet and STEPS – Panama City, Panama.
Noteworthy recent designs and collaborations include the 2019 Catholic Church World Youth Day – a weeklong celebration with Pope Francis in Panama City, Panama (LD), the 2023 multi-million-dollar new production of The Nutcracker for Orlando Ballet (LD), the 2018 multi-million-dollar new production of The Nutcracker for Atlanta Ballet (ALD), the 2024 full-length world premiere ballet Lucile for Ballet Nacional de Cuba (LD), the 2024 premiere of The Wizard of Oz musical for Royal Caribbean on Icon of the Seas (assistant LD), and the 2021 Marquee TV world premiere of Orpheus for The Washington Ballet (LD). He also created the lighting design for Permanent: An Experimental Art Movement – a movement piece created for film in Atlanta’s High Museum of Art in response to “EW,SN” by the artist Radcliffe Bailey in the museum’s permanent collection.
Walls is a lecturer at the University of Michigan SMTD Dance Department and has previously been a lecturer in the University of Michigan SMTD Theatre & Drama Department, the Maggie Allessee Department of Theatre and Dance at Wayne State University, and the Department of Theatrical Arts at Utah Valley University. Walls was also lighting supervisor for the University of Florida Performing Arts and the director of production for Pepperdine University’s Lisa Smith Wengler Center for the Arts.
Walls has created successful designs in collaboration with numerous choreographers and directors, including Ricardo Amarante, Rachel Avery, Natrea Blake, Gemma Bond, Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux, Raianna Brown, Val Caniparoli, Vincent J. Cardinal, Jacqueline Colledge, Ma Cong, Nacho Duato, Patricia Galindo-Orillac, Dana Genshaft, Heath Gill, Rick Hammerly, John Heginbotham, David Ingram, Julie Kent, Victoria Koenig, Johan Kobborg, Vincent Lancisi, Jessica Lang, Sophie Laplane, Tara Lee, Young Soon Hue, Stephanie Martinez, Patricia McBride, Trey McIntye, Andrea Miller, Jorden Morris, Yoshiaki Nakano, Gennadi Nedvigin, Juliano Nunes, Meg Paul, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Helen Pickett, Dwight Rhoden, Desmond Richardson, Joseph Ritsch, Claudia Schreier, Katarzyna Skarpetowska, Adam Sklute, George Staib, Ethan Stiefel, Paul Taylor, Holly Twyford, Septime Webre, Bruce Wells, and Yury Yanowsky.
He has also worked closely with lighting designers in remounting and archiving their designs including: Konstantin Binkin, Carlo Cerr, Billy Chan, Les Dickert, David Finn, Nicolas Fishtel, Don Holder, Michael Hulls, James F. Ingalls, Michael Korsch, Jack Mehler, Nicole Pearce, Lisa Pinkham, Rui Rita, Clifton Taylor, Matt Taylor, Kees Tiebbes, Tom Visser, Alastair West, and Thom Weaver. Additional lighting designs and collaborations include various works for American Repertory Ballet, Atlanta Ballet, Ballet West, Center Stage (Baltimore), The Charlotte Ballet; Complexions Contemporary Ballet (NYC); Denver Ballet Guild; The Encore Musical Theatre (Dexter, MI); Factory 449: a theatre collective (Washington D.C.); GALA Hispanic Theatre (Washington D.C); Inland Pacific Ballet (California); Inter-American Development Bank (Washington D.C.); Komansé Dance Theater (Atlanta); Lunchbox Theatre (Calgary); Milwaukee Ballet; Ballet Nacional De Cuba; National Theatre of Panama; Oklahoma City Ballet; Orlando Ballet; Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre; Pacific Northwest Ballet; Rep Stage (Maryland); Richmond Ballet; Roswell Dance Theatre (Georgia); staibdance (Atlanta); STEPS Panama (Panama City, Panama); Stone Mountain Park (Georgia); Utah Metropolitan Ballet; The Washington Ballet; WSC Avant Bard (Washington D.C.); and Royal Caribbean International – Icon of the Seas, Quantum of the Seas, and Odyssey of the Seas.
In addition to lighting, Walls’ design experience includes scenic, sound, projection, and video, and Blacktrax programming. International design work includes productions in Canada, Cuba, Germany, Greece, Latvia, Panama and Israel. He has been nominated for Best Lighting Design of Panama – Fundación Premios Escena Panama.
