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Morgan Thorson: Heaven

Presented by DiverseWorks Art Space at DiverseWorks ArtSpace

October 16-October 17, 2009

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DiverseWorks is thrilled to debut the world premiere of Heaven, an extraordinary collaboration between Minneapolis-based choreographer, Morgan Thorson, the band, LOW (Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker), Lighting Designer, Lenore Doxsee, and Visual and Costume Designer, Emmet Ramstad, that explores emotional and physical manifestations of ecstatic perfection.

Culling forms and concepts from religious practices as strategies for creating the same state through dance, Heaven’s reverential spectacle will exert an extreme force of attraction on all—believers, non-believers, dance enthusiasts and music lovers. Performances take place Friday - Saturday, October 16 - 17, 2009, 8pm in the DiverseWorks Theater.

Morgan Thorson’s three year developmental residency with DiverseWorks has featured trips to landmark institution Lakewood Church in Houston and collaborations with national and local designers to create a piece that employs methods that are both serene and sweaty to startle and seduce. Lenore Doxsee, lighting designer of Heaven, worked closely with Thorson to achieve the feeling of an intermediate sanctuary between terrestrial and celestial. Indie rock band, Low, has created the original score for the piece that is influenced by Shape-note singing, an A capella singing tradition that celebrates song as an ecstatic expression, as well as the band’s minimalist sensibility.

To create the work, Thorson and her collaborators have developed a devotional practice from which she has cultivated movement, vocal work and lighting design to embody ideas of perfection, ecstasy and paradise in the performance work.

ABOUT MORGAN THORSON
Morgan Thorson is a 2009 fellow at the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography and is the recipient of the 2009 McKnight Foundation Fellowship in Choreography. Last season, Thorson was named “Best Choreographer of 2008” by the Minneapolis-St. Paul City Pages, and received a 2007 Sage Award for Outstanding Choreography for Docudrama.

In 2006, Thorson was awarded the Music in Motion commission to create No Feeling for Harmony and received a Sage Award for Outstanding Performance for her full-evening work, Faker. She has received fellowships from the Bush and Jerome Foundations, and in 2004 she received The Bessie Schoenberg Memorial Fellowship to support her work at the Djerassi Resident Artist Program in Woodside, CA. Thorson has created many commissioned works for universities, companies and independent artists, including Lisa D’Amour, Split Britches Theater Company, Barnard College, University of Minnesota, and James Sewell Ballet Company.
Thorson’s work has been presented by venues worldwide, including Jacob’s Pillow, The Kitchen (NYC); Performing Arts Group (Seoul, South Korea); LIP (London); and Link/Vostok (Yarislovl, Russia). In October, 2009, she will premiere Heaven, co-commissioned by the Walker Art Center, DiverseWorks in Houston, and P.S. 122 in New York City.

Heaven is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation Fund Project co-commissioned by Diverseworks (Houston) in partnership with PS 122 (New York) and NPN. Major contributors of NPN are the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency), the MetLife Foundation, and the Nathan Cummings Foundation. This project is also commissioned by the Walker Art Center with residency support from the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography in Tallahassee, Florida.

Additional funding provided by: New England for the Arts’ National Dance Project (NDP), with generous support by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the MetLIfe Community Connections Fund of the MetLife Foundation; and by a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, through an appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature, a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and private funders.

ABOUT DIVERSEWORKS ARTSPACE
Known for its groundbreaking artistic and education programs, DiverseWorks is one of the premiere contemporary arts centers in the United States. DiverseWorks has been a hub for the presentation of daring and innovative work, a commissioner of major artistic projects in all disciplines, and an advocate for artists worldwide. Founded by artists for artists, DiverseWorks continues its commitment to bold artistic exploration, creative risk-taking, and building audiences for contemporary art.

Image courtesy of Cameron Wittig.