Lightning Never Strikes the Same Place Twice, a multimedia dance, theater and projected video performance is comprised of two performances created by choreographer, dancer and video artist Catherine Galasso. The programs combine live dance with video projection in different ways.

Simmer, a solo dance performance by Galasso, is an homage to Galasso's father, composer Michael Galasso. Michael Galasso composed scores for several high profile plays and films, including multiple works by Robert Wilson and Wong Kar-wai. He also recently garnered a César for Best Original Score for the highly celebrated film Seraphine. His sound installations have appeared in many venues including the Guggenheim museums of New York and Bilbao. Michael Galasso passed away in 2009.

The second piece, Lightning Never Strikes the Same Place Twice, focuses on the real-life figure of Roy Sullivan, the individual considered by the Guiness Book of World Records to have been struck by lightning more than any human being in history: seven times. The work, featuring choreography by Galasso for four dancers, covers Sullivan's many tribulations through eliptical narrative, humor and movement. Sullivan encounters and falls hopelessly in love with the enchanting Hot Wire Honey, a woman made of glow-in-the-dark electrical cords, which symbolize Sullivan’s high voltage violence and his undeniably vital energy. Sullivan is also partially seduced by the flamboyance and graceful sophistication of the possibly inaccessible, cosmopolitan Ballerina Internationale, who seems to promise global inclusion. Sullivan's adversary, the prickly and competitive Testosterony Pony, flaunts a masculinity that Sullivan can never achieve and also steals his love.

Performance artist, dancer, filmmaker and choreographer Catherine Galasso's motivation has been to find a unique mode of expression that extends beyond traditional boundaries between media. She combines the ephemeral qualities of performance with the illusive permanence of film and video in order to create cutting-edge and provocative narratives. Although her pieces differ greatly in theme and execution, they are for the most part based on modern myth and idiosyncratic stories that inspire and move her. In terms of content, the eclectic pieces that constitute Catherine’s body of work are united by an ongoing fascination with stories of human struggle.

Presented with support from the Zellerbach Family Foundation.

Lightning Never Strikes the Same Place Twice is presented at SOMArts Cultural Center as part of the Affordable Space Program, which is supported by the San Francisco Arts Commission.