"A movement without motivation is unthinkable," Doris Humphrey wrote in "The Art of Making Dances," and she lived this statement out in her life, career, and dances. At a time when many dance artists were still acting out a balletic obsession with the presentation of limbs, Humphrey cultivated a deep

Dense, Functional, Kinetic, Organic, Sincere

In 1797 a young brother and sister executed one of the more intriguing moves in the history of English literature: William and Dorothy Wordsworth took up residence in Alfoxden, Somersetshire, a stone's throw from Samuel Coleridge's home in Nether Stowey. The three would form the most productive liter

Lush, Organic, Rhythmic, Romantic poetry, Sensual, Sublime

Bach achieved a religious, mathematical, and musical ideal: he combined extreme complexity with impeccable stability, at once defining and surpassing Baroque ideals. From painting to music to architecture, the arts of the Baroque era took embellishment to its limit without surrendering harmony or uni

Baroque music, Ebullient, Layered, Mathematical, Organic, Religious, Repetitive, Serial

At age 12, Franz Liszt performed a rendition of Beethoven's "Symphony in C-minor" as the master composer sat in the audience. Legend has it that after the superb performance, the great maestro kissed the juvenile Liszt on the forehead. Liszt's future as the most brilliant of pianists seemed to be sea

Death, Dramatic, Eclectic, Moody, Organic, Religious, Romantic music