The Mitchell Center presents the world premiere of Lightning at our feet, a multimedia song cycle created from the poems and letters of celebrated American poet Emily Dickinson that reunites composer Michael Gordon and New York’s Ridge Theater – the creative team behind the critically acclaimed Decasia (2001). Setting Dickinson’s poems to music and motion, Lightning at our feet straddles the genres of music, theater, and dance, encompassing its elements in a world of projections from filmmaker Bill Morrison and visual artist Laurie Olinder (Shelter, BAM 2005, Next Wave).  

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Ridge Theater has established itself as one of America’s premiere creators of avant-garde theater, opera, and new music performance. Ridge productions are epic visual and aural works that typically position performers within film and video projections, redefining traditional theatrical boundaries. Dramatic staging by acclaimed director Bob McGrath and haunting film work and projections by the filmmaker Bill Morrison and the visual artist Laurie Olinder are hallmarks of the Ridge style. Their productions have been presented at venues such as the American Repertory Theater, BAM, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Royal Festival Hall, and Walt Disney Concert Hal. Ridge Theater’s work has been described as “hallucinatory, oddly beautiful, and disturbing,” by The Chicago Tribune. “They conjure up a dreamlike world, in which the actors seem to float.” Ridge Theater and its collaborators have received numerous awards including multiple Village Voice OBIEs, NY Dance & Performance BESSIE awards, an Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Design in the Theater, as well as fellowships from The Foundation for Contemporary Arts, the NEA, and the Guggenheim Foundation. Five films from Ridge productions are part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art.