Heaven

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• Choreographer Morgan Thorson

Choreographer Morgan Thorson had a simple premise when she started working on Heaven, which is making its world premiere at DiverseWorks today. "I was interested in perfection," she says. "That got me looking into religion, specifically Christianity, and I was disturbed by the contradictions I found there." Thorson set out on a two-year journey reading about faith and attending religious services of every stripe to explore those contradictions, as well as the ideas of ritual and community. (She asked one pastor of a megachurch what heaven looked like, and he answered, "I don't know, but I hope there's a golf course.") "I found in my research that I was really drawn to the beauty and mystery and brutality of religious iconology, like the crucifix. I wanted to take that mystery and funnel that into a dance." The result, she says, isn't a narrative so much as it's a "movement - dance - ritual." See if you can get to heaven at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. 1117 East Freeway. For information, call 713-223-8346 or visit www.diverseworks.org. Pay what you want.
Fri., Oct. 16, 8 p.m.; Sat., Oct. 17, 8 p.m., 2009