Martha Graham quotes - page 4

The secret to dancing is that it is about everything except dancing. (Martha Graham)
The spine is the tree of life. Respect it. View quote
Martha Graham
I've relaxed my feelings about other companies performing my works. I have never in principle been against my ballets being danced by other companies. Rather, it is that we lack the time, space and money to insure that they are done well. To me, the only sin is mediocrity. View quote
Martha Graham
Wherever a dancer stands is holy ground. View quote
Martha Graham
I believe one thing: that today is yesterday and tomorrow is today and you can't stop. View quote
Martha Graham
There is a force, a quickness that is translated through you into action. If you block it, the world will not have it. View quote
Martha Graham
You don't pick dance. Dance picks you. View quote
Martha Graham
I believe that dance was the first art. A philosopher has said that dance and architecture were the first arts. I believe that dance was first because it's gesture, it's communication. That doesn't mean it's telling a story, but it means it's communicating a feeling, a sensation to people. View quote
Martha Graham
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. View quote
Martha Graham
My dancing is not an attempt to interpret life in the literary sense. It is an affirmation of life through movement. View quote
Martha Graham
The world I'm interested in is the one where things are not named. (Martha Graham)
I never thought of myself as being a genius. I don't know what genius is. I think a far better expression is a retriever, a lovely strong golden retriever that brings things back from the past, or retrieves things from our common blood memory. View quote
Martha Graham
You have no right to go before a public without an adequate technique, just because you feel. Anything feels - a leaf feels, a storm feels - what right have you to do that? You have to have speech, and it's a cultivated speech. View quote
Martha Graham
It's what I always wanted to do, to show the laughter, the fun, the joy of dance. View quote
Martha Graham
If you feel depressed you shouldn't go out on the street because it will show on your face and you'll give it to others. Misery is a communicable disease. View quote
Martha Graham
No animal ever has an ugly body until it is domesticated. It is the same with the human body. View quote
Martha Graham
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. View quote
Martha Graham
It's not my job to look beautiful. It's my job to look interesting. View quote
Martha Graham
Modern dance isn't anything except one thing in my mind: the freedom of women in America. View quote
Martha Graham
I'd rather an audience like me than dislike me, but I'd rather they disliked me than be apathetic, because that is the kiss of death. View quote
Martha Graham
If I can't dance, I don't care if my dances are ever done again! (Martha Graham)
The gesture is the thing truly expressive of the individual - as we think so will we act. View quote
Martha Graham
In a dancer, there is a reverence for such forgotten things as the miracle of the small beautiful bones and their delicate strength. View quote
Martha Graham
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. View quote
Martha Graham
You see, when weaving a blanket, an Indian woman leaves a flaw in the weaving of that blanket to let the soul out. View quote
Martha Graham