Student Designs Lighting for Fall Dance Concert

Student lighting designer DJ Cook has been getting some pretty expert advice recently. Selected for the prestigious ETC Fred Foster Student Mentorship Program this past summer, he has received guidance from lighting design luminaries like Robert T. Barnhart, whose 25-year, 10-Emmy Award career includes highlights such as Super Bowl halftime shows with Lady Gaga and Katy Perry and 35 episodes of So You Think You Can Dance.

“You may not know him, DJ said, “but you know his work.”

Access to that aesthetic authority came in handy this fall as DJ took on the challenge of lead lighting designer for the dance department’s Fall Dance Concert – an extraordinary opportunity for a student. The concert, which runs October 24-27, features four quite different pieces, each requiring its own distinctive look.

“For this concert, DJ has been able to use recently purchased moving lights and LED fixtures,” said Senior Lecturer and Production Electrician Rick Moll, who has mentored DJ during this project. “These additional tools not only enhance the overall look of the concert, but allow DJ to experiment with new techniques.”

While he has served as a student co-designer for past dance concerts, this is DJ’s first time at the helm. He is particularly excited to work with guest choreographer Robert Green, who has danced with superstars such as Taylor Swift, Justin Timberlake, Selena Gomez, The Weeknd, and Mary J. Blige and choreographed for Tove Lo and Charli XCX.

“His style is very reactive to the music, and the lighting should be, too,” he said. “It’s cinematic; he wants it to feel like a movie. It will be a lot of programming on my end, but it’s really cool.”

A communications major with minors in theatre and French, DJ is a Levine Scholar and has taken full advantage of the many experiences available through his scholarship, the theatre department, and the university at large.

“The Levine Scholarship has been an enormous blessing, allowing me to pursue whatever area of study of my interest without worry of financials.”

He has studied abroad three times – to Costa Rica, South Africa, and most recently to France, where he was an intern journalist at the Cannes Film Festival, assigned to cover movie premieres and A-list events with George Lucas, Meryl Streep, and other Hollywood stars.

He says that the Levine family’s support and promotion of the arts has been a boon to his theatre education. “Through them, I’ve had the opportunity to see dozens of shows in uptown Charlotte, such as Broadway tours, Charlotte Ballet dance performances, and plays at Theatre Charlotte.”

Because of the professional connections of performing arts faculty such as Rick Moll, DJ has also worked in those uptown venues.

“I work as a local stagehand for IATSE (International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees) Local 322 on concerts and touring theatre productions in Charlotte at venues such as the Belk Theater, Knight Theater, Spectrum Center, Bank of America Stadium, and PNC Music Pavilion. I’ve also worked on a handful of productions as an ASM or sound board operator at Charlotte Ballet.”

“As a freshman, DJ was working with IATSE Local 322,” said Moll. “DJ would work a Broadway load-out at the Blumenthal Center on a Sunday, then come to class with questions about how things were done.” 

DJ’s many experiences led to a professional internship this past summer with The Naples Players in Naples, Florida, where he served as the lighting design intern for three mainstage theatre productions.

“DJ is a talented and hardworking artist whose potential has no bounds” said  Professor of Lighting Design David Fillmore. “His excitement about lighting design is contagious, and he is already helping to mentor a new generation of dedicated lighting designers.”

Now a senior, DJ will get the chance to design the lighting for the Department of Theatre’s production of Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure in April, before graduating in May. He hopes to then enter a year-long apprenticeship and is already putting together a portfolio of his design work. As he does so, he’s been getting advice from Robert Barnhart on how to best photograph his lighting.

“He gave me some tips to improve that, and there is definitely a clear improvement.”

Senior Lecturer and Lighting Designer Gordon Olson, who nominated DJ for the Fred Foster Student Mentorship Program, said that DJ continues to be one of the brightest students in the theatrical design area.

“He has challenged us as mentors to expand and redefine our own workflows while he continues blazing his own trail within the college as an upstanding peer with a work ethic second to none. I see nothing but a bright future laid out before him, and I’m excited to see where his career takes him once he graduates this May.”

Although his diploma will list a Bachelor of Arts in Communications Studies, DJ says that in his heart he is a theatre major.

“I love the theatre department. I will always say I was trained at UNC Charlotte.”