El Penitente was first performed in 1940 at Bennington College in Vermont, part of the renowned Bennington Festival. While the title refers to a sect of Southwestern Indigenous Americans who practiced purification from sin through severe penance (a tradition deriving from the Spanish colonial presence there), the dance itself bears no direct relationship to these practices. Constructed in the form of a play within a play, the dance presents a series of episodes from the Bible as enacted by a group of strolling players.