Merce Cunningham, who was once Graham's top protege, began a long collaboration with modern musician John Cage, in which they explored the possibilities of pure movement. They created an ambiguous relationship between movement and music in their works, thus adding random and unknown elements to dance performances.
例如曾是瑪沙．葛蘭姆鍾愛弟子的摩斯．康寧漢就與現代音樂大師約翰．凱吉長期合作，探索純粹的肢體動作，也常與音樂若即若離，使舞台上充滿不可知的隨機表現。