“Before Merce, American modern dance was dominated by the intense and inward creativity of Martha Graham. Her dances were morally serious and psychologically powerful; she was interested in narrative and mythology, and in unearthing the inner depths of human consciousness in movement. His dances were cerebral and abstract, rigorously formal designs with no story and no ‘meaning’ other than the dance itself. The movement was never confessional or impassioned but appeared instead organic and detached, an act of nature.”