"Heaven Sense" performance/installation at the Contemporary on Friday, February 16

Everybody wants to get to heaven, but nobody wants to die - or so goes the old saying, anyway. With that in mind, those seeking a potential glimpse of divinity without the accompanying experience of mortality might want to check out "Heaven Sense," a multimedia performance/installation scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on Friday, February 16 at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, 3750 Washington Blvd. in Grand Center.

The event is sponsored by the Contemporary and the St. Louis Poetry Center, and will feature a new original score from guitarist Todd Mosby accompanying a performance featuring poet Sally Van Doren and a group of 20 dancers directed by Draza Jansky. Mosby will perform the score live for the event, with help from percussionist Henry Claude of the Nuclear Percussion Ensemble and vocalist Rebecca Ryan.

The event's title plays off of the Contemporary's current exhibition, I Remember Heaven: Jim Hodges and Andy Warhol - which includes a gallery full of floating silver pillows designed by Warhol and a seven-foot mirrored disco ball - as well as Van Doren's poem "The Sense Series," from which she will read during the performance. Van Doren's work has appeared in literary journals including Barrow Street, Boulevard, Cincinnati Review and Colorado Review. She teaches creative writing in the St. Louis Public Schools and coordinates workshops for the St. Louis Poetry Center.

Jansky is a dancer, choreographer, and teacher who has created dance/theater and multi-media performance pieces for St. Louis arts organizations including the Contemporary, The St. Louis Art Museum, COCA and Washington University Theater Department. She teaches dance and movement techniques at Saint Louis University and Maryville University, and describes "Heaven Sense" thusly: "The 20 dancers will be set up around the galleries, responding live to the exhibit and to the poetry and music. Guests will be free to roam the galleries, viewing the dancers the way they would view art, while taking in the soundscape created by Todd and company. My role is artistic director for the dance section (choosing dancers, setting them up in the space) and I will also be dancing."