Martha Graham Quotes
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Some men have thousands of reasons why they cannot do what they want to, when all they need is one reason why they can.
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What I do must be done in the sunlight of awareness.
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Dancing is a very living art. It is essentially of the moment, although a very old art. A dancer's art is lived while he is dancing. Nothing is left of his art except the pictures and the memories--when his dancing days are over.
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Sometimes it's blood memory... not the blood your mother and father gave you... but that which stretches back two or three thousand years.
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No animal ever has an ugly body until it is domesticated. It is the same with the human body.
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Discipline is liberation.
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I did not want to be a tree, a flower or a wave. In a dancer's body, we as audience must see ourselves, not the imitated behavior of everyday actions, not the phenomenon of nature, not exotic creatures from another planet, but something of the miracle that is a human being.
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At the time I started in ballet they were dancing 'The Spirit of Champagne' on pointe, in Paris. I thought, 'I don't want to dance the spirit of champagne, I want to drink it!
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There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique, and if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium, and be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is, not how it compares with other expression. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open.
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Dance is communication, and so the great challenge is to speak clearly, beautifully and with inevitability.
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We are all of us, unique - each a unique pattern of creativity and if we do not fulfill it, it is lost for all time.
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Fire is the test of gold; adversity, of strong men.
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You don't pick dance. Dance picks you.
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I'm asked so often whether I believe in life after death. I do believe in the sanctity of life, the continuity of life and of energy. I know the anonymity of death has no appeal for me. It is the now that I must face and want to face.
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I am absorbed in the magic of movement and light. Movement never lies. It is the magic of what I call the outer space of the imagination.
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Dance is a song of the body. Either of joy or pain.
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Our arms start from the back because they were once wings.
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It's what I always wanted to do, to show the laughter, the fun, the joy of dance.
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The body is a sacred garment.
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'Age' is the acceptance of a term of years. But maturity is the glory of years.
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A dancer must listen to his body and pay homage to it. Behind the movement lies this terrible, driving passion, this necessity. I won't settle for anything less.
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We learn by practice. Whether it means to learn to dance by practicing dancing or to learn to live by practicing living, the principles are the same. One becomes in some area an athlete of God.
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Dancing appears glamorous, easy, delightful. But the path to paradise of the achievement is not easier than any other. There is fatigue so great that the body cries, even in its sleep. There are times of complete frustration, there are daily small deaths.
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Practice is a means of inviting the perfection desired.
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Wherever a dancer stands is holy ground.
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The body is your instrument in dance, but your art is outside that creature, the body. I don't leap and jump anymore. I look at young dancers, and I am envious, more aware of what glories the body contains. But sensitivity is not made dull by age.
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No artist is ahead of his time. He is his time; it is just that others are behind the times.
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The world I'm interested in is the one where things are not named.
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There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening, that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique.
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Freedom to a dancer means discipline. That is what technique is for -- liberation.
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