Live Design International (LDI) 2024

Sharon has been a lighting designer, programmer, and educator for over 20 years, living and working around the world and in many different areas of our industry. She lived in Amsterdam for several years where she was up to various things including working for the Dutch National Opera & Ballet, for ETC as the Field Project Coordinator for Northern Europe, lecturing for the Academy voor Theatre en Dans Amsterdam and designing lighting, projection, and scenery for multiple European/Russian tours with Deva Premal & Miten.

There were also American and Canadian chapters that included lots of lighting design for theatre and dance, some Olympics and Paralympics, some NYC and Broadway, some Detroit Auto show, one tiny house built, and being Lighting Director for the Home States Ball at the 2009 Presidential Inauguration. Touring credits include designs for Diana Krall, Jesse Cook, Lighting Direction forNorah Jones, Ballet British Columbia, more technical things for Cirque Du Soleil, some production management, some years as a booking agent covering US/Can/Mexico and enough experience on the promoter’s side to know that those guys work really hard.

She headed the Lighting MFA program at University of Cincinnati’s CollegeConservatory of Music (CCM) for the last several years, and started as program director for The Academy of Live Technology @ Rock Lititz in January 2024 She has been a guest lecturer internationally at the Academy voor Theater en Dans as well as the Media College, both in Amsterdam, Addis Ababa University and Wolkite University in Ethiopia. Some academic project highlights include lighting and projection design for a production called “Mediation” at the National Theatre of Ethiopia, created by the Mursi people, the South Omo Theatre Company and SOAS University, London.

She has been awarded numerous grants over her academic career, including ones to fund two years of “The Hughes Project”, a collaborative projection mapping and lighting project, blending Hughes High School students’ artwork with CCM students’ design and technology skills to create an immersive outdoor event for the entire community. Huizinga holds a BFA in technical theatre from the University of Wyoming and an MFA in Lighting Design from the University of British Columbia. She is a certified Jivamukti Yoga teacher and a firm believer in the tiny house movement.