The performance was part of a concert staged by the Dance Repertory Theatre, a group that included dancer/choreographers Doris Humphrey, Charles Weidman and Helen Tamiris.
[1] Graham said of the costume, "I wear a long tube of material to indicate the tragedy that obsesses the body, the ability to stretch inside your own skin, to witness and test the perimeters and boundaries of grief.
The angular motions of torso, head and arms become increasingly exaggerated, shaping the jersey costume into squares, triangles and rhomboids that frame her emotionless face and a portion of her chest.
[1] It is one of the last dances made during what Graham referred to as her "long woolens" period, early works for which she costumed herself and female troupe members in stretch jersey.
[6] Graham scholars place the piece within her oeuvre of psychological expressionist ballets[7] alongside Errand into the Maze, Night Journey, Dark Meadow and others.
"[9] Graham's inspiration for the piece reportedly came from the Old Testament Book of Lamentations, which begins "How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people!
The lone shrouded female figure bathed in blue stage lighting has been interpreted as a holy person, perhaps the Virgin Mary as Mater Dolorosa.
[7] Troupe members who have appeared in the piece include Janet Eilber, Christine Dakin, Terese Capucilli, Peggy Lyman, Joyce Herring, Katherine Crockett, and Natasha M. Diamond-Walker.