And with a quality of dark mystery, it certainly seemed to work.
It's almost Swiftian, with a quality of fantasy that sees the world as lurid and absurd".
But he is also intensely feminine, with a quality of movement that seems to conjure the forces of a whole legion of women dancers.
Ms. Smith's warm, molasses-textured voice is remarkably intact, along with her ability to impart a ballad with a quality of rueful resilience.
Her voice is unusual, with a quality of echoey huskiness in the lower part and top notes that are notably smaller than the rest, but perfectly solid.
She phrases with a quality of Italianate lyricism and, unlike most Wagner sopranos, executes the occasional trills that are in the score.
Alone, a Cunningham dancer investigates movement, space and time with a quality of contemplation that often turns dance into a stream-of-consciousness soliloquy.
He would periodically mesmerize his students by executing a picture as they watched, jabbing and swiping an image into existence with a quality of tense, balletic energy that he called "go".
Set to Weber's "Invitation to the Dance," it demands a great deal of technique from the male dancer along with a quality of effortless, impersonal grace; he is romance incarnate, rather than a male figure.
