It may be a coincidence that the choreographer Mark Morris has devoted this nation’s 250th anniversary to “Dances to American Music,” as he’s called the various programs culled from his vast, 45-year repertory. But the Seattle native is a pure product of America. He’s American in his empirical, iconoclastic approach to music, disregarding its accrued meanings for what he hears in the score. He’s American because irony comes easily and is a conduit of sincerity. He’s American for speaking plainly when he’s being profound and for making you feel, not think. The Mark Morris Dance Group and Music Ensemble ends its American year with enough dances for half a season, an unusual number of which are returning, after decades, from the choreographer’s precocious, cocky youth. The three, rotating programs at the Joyce are music-themed, with separate nights for early jazz; country and western; and the “American mavericks” Henry Cowell and Lou Harrison. If you must choose, opt for the country and western for the funny, surprising turns the choreography gives the laconic lyrics, and pick the dense, sweet modernists for how they disarm Morris, unleashing tenderness and ferocity. —Apollinaire Scherr