The prickly father Christopher sees the demand to learn sign as an affront both to the family's upbringing of Billy and a dangerously isolating gesture.
"I like isolated gestures, undulating backs and pelvis-initiated movement," she said.
"The teacup hand, the iconic 'Pippin' hat tip, those isolated gestures — we think of these as American jazz dance, but when Hema was teaching us, I was like, 'Oh, I'm not really far from this at all.' " The theme of distance, both cultural and geographical, inevitably shadows this ostensibly lighthearted children's work.
This gesture of openness, which startled the Catholic world, would prove not to be an isolated event.
The score evolves in a flow, sometimes barely audible, of isolated instrumental gestures and fragments against a near-continuous backdrop of rumbles, hums and pedal tones.
Feldman was influenced by Webern, who isolated individual gestures and notes in his tiny, sparsely scored works, which include dynamic markings like "scarcely audible".
But is the undeniably significant improvement in the quality of life for the poor and working class enough to explain why Occupy Wall Street fizzled and the fast-food workers' strikes last year were isolated "angry gestures," in Mr Miller's words?
According to Dr. John Gottman, the small, intentional moments have more power than isolated, excessive gestures when it comes to creating and sustaining lasting love.
"It was a crass and clumsy gesture from an increasingly isolated tinpot despot – a morally deranged authoritarian who was at that very moment clinging desperately on to political power in the face of international sanctions and a rising chorus of international condemnation," he said.
