Caillois divides play into four categories: agon (competition), alea (chance), mimicry (simulation), and ilinx (vertigo).

NEWYORKER: Master of Play

Though Lil Buck has ballet schooling in his background, the ballet postures for his "Agon" riffs looked more approximate than authoritative.

WSJ: A Morris Quartet; Lil Buck's Jookin' | Mark Morris Dance Group With Mikhail Baryshnikov | Lil Buck | Yo-Yo Ma | A Jookin' Jam Session at (Le) Poisson Rouge | By Robert Greskovic

In 1930, he found his mentor, Arshile Gorky, whose harrowing agon with the art of Picasso broached a new mode of pictorial space.

NEWYORKER: Shifting Picture

But here, as with a segment called "Riffs on Agon" (which took inspirations of movement and music from Igor Stravinsky's "Agon, " a 1957 ballet by George Balanchine) and with the world premiere of "Orbit" (a composition for solo cello by Philip Glass), Lil Buck looked somewhat constrained held back by efforts based more on set choreography than improvisation.

WSJ: A Morris Quartet; Lil Buck's Jookin' | Mark Morris Dance Group With Mikhail Baryshnikov | Lil Buck | Yo-Yo Ma | A Jookin' Jam Session at (Le) Poisson Rouge | By Robert Greskovic