"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

A dense reticulum of ideas, which unravels into a swarm of images and a cacophony of sounds but nevertheless maintains a fluid coherence: such is the world of Wallace Stevens, Modernist poet par excellence, a man of stoic temperament and intimidating intelligence. With a daunting arsenal of unfamilia

Composed, Contemplative, Dense, Modernist poetry, Quirky, Smart, Sophisticated

The context for Malcolm Lowry's masterpiece, "Under the Volcano," is simple: a single day in the life of Geoffrey Firmin. It happens to be his last. The place is Quauhnahuac, Mexico, the day the Day of the Dead. As the locals celebrate the souls of the deceased, Firmin (also known as "the Consul"), h

Death, Dense, Euphoric, Hallucinatory, Modernist literature, Sprawling, Tragic

If Walter Ruttman had not been killed while making a newsreel on the frontlines of World War II, the history of film might have turned out differently. He made breathtakingly beautiful movies -- both animated and shot --that radically departed from the traditional narratives of contemporaries like Ch

Collage, Dense, German expressionist film, Perceptual, Pioneering, Rhythmic, Sophisticated