Martha Graham Dance Quotations

You are unique, and if that is not fulfilled, then something has been lost.

First we have to believe, and then we believe.

Some men have thousands of reasons why they cannot do what they want to, when all they need is one reason why they can.

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.

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.

Every dance is a kind of fever chart, a graph of the heart.

Practice means to perform, over and over again in the face of all obstacles, some act of vision, of faith, of desire. Practice is a means of inviting the perfection desired.

Think of the magic of that foot, comparatively small, upon which your whole weight rests. It's a miracle, and the dance is a celebration of that miracle.

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.

Dance is the hidden language of the soul of the body.

The body is your instrument in dance, but your art is outside that creature, the body.

To me, a building - if it's beautiful - is the love of one man, he's made it out of his love for space, materials, things like that.

No artist is ahead of his time. He is his time; it is just that others are behind the times.

Dance is the hidden language of the soul.

the instrument by which the dance expresses itself is also the instrument by which life is lived: the human body.

It is difficult to see the great dance effects as they happen, to see them accurately, catch them fast in memory. It is even more difficult to verbalize them for critical discussion. The particular essence of a performance, its human sweep of articulate rhythm in space and in time has no specific terminology to describe it by.

To me, this acquirement of nervous, physical, and emotional concentration is the one element possessed to the highest degree by the truly great dancers of the world. Its acquirement is the result of discipline, of energy in the deep sense. That is why there are so few great dancers.

I get up, I fall down, all the while I am dancing.

I believe that we learn by practice... it is the performance of a dedicated precise set of acts, physical or intellectual, from which come shape of achievement, a sense of one's being, a satisfaction of spirit.

Nobody cares if you can't dance well.

If I can't dance, I don't care if my dances are ever done again!

Every dance is a kind of fever chart, a graph of the heart. The instrument through which the dance speaks is also the instrument through which life is lived ... the human body.

Dancers have more bones than most people and on the days when you work hard you are sure that you have somehow accumulated more bones than you started with.

There is fatigue so great that the body cries, even in its sleep.

The body is a sacred garment.

The world I'm interested in is the one where things are not named.

You see, when weaving a blanket, an Indian woman leaves a flaw in the weaving of that blanket to let the soul out.

It takes ten years, usually, to make a dancer. It takes ten years of handling the instrument, handling the material with which you are dealing, for you to know it completely.

The only sin is mediocrity.

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.

The next time you look into the mirror, just look at the way the ears rest next to the head; look at the way the hairline grows; think of all the little bones in your wrist. It is a miracle. And the dance is a celebration of that miracle.

It's what I always wanted to do, to show the laughter, the fun, the joy of dance.

Dance is communication, and so the great challenge is to speak clearly, beautifully and with inevitability.

Nothing is more revealing than movement.

We look at the dance to impart the sensation of living in an affirmation of life, to energize the spectator into keener awareness of the vigor, the mystery, the humor, the variety, and the wonder of life. This is the function of the American dance.

In a dancer, there is a reverence for such forgotten things as the miracle of the small beautiful bones and their delicate strength.

Freedom to a dancer means discipline. That is what technique is for -- liberation.

Dance is a song of the body. Either of joy or pain.

Dancers today can do anything; the technique is phenomenal. The passion and the meaning to their movement can be another thing.

No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a strange, divine dissatisfaction , a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.

Dancers are the messengers of the gods.

Practice is a means of inviting the perfection desired.

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.

I did not choose to be a dancer. I was chosen.

My dancing is not an attempt to interpret life in the literary sense. It is an affirmation of life through movement.

The spine is the tree of life. Respect it.

Wherever a dancer stands is holy ground.

Dancing is just discovery, discovery, discovery

I am certain that movement never lies. There is only one law of posture I have been able to discover - the perpendicular line connecting heaven and earth.

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.

You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open...

All that is important is this one moment in movement. Make the moment important, vital, and worth living. Do not let it slip away unnoticed and unused.

Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance. Great dancers are great because of their passion.

Stand up! Keep your backs straight! Remember that this is where the wings grow.

The body says what words cannot.

A dancer, more than any other human being, dies two deaths: the first, the physical when the powerfully trained body will no longer respond as you would wish. After all, I choreographed for myself. I never choreographed what I could not do. I changed steps in Medea and other ballets to accommodate the change. But I knew. And it haunted me. I only wanted to dance.

I believe that 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. In each, it is the performance of a dedicated precise set of acts, physical or intellectual, from which comes shape of achievement, a sense of one's being, a satisfaction of spirit. One becomes, in some area, an athlete of God. Practice means to perform, over and over again in the face of all obstacles, some act of vision, of faith, of desire. Practice is a means of inviting the perfection desired.

Movement never lies. It is a barometer telling the state of the soul's weather to all who can read it.

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.

Our arms start from the back because they were once wings.