Martha Graham quotes - page 5

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. (Martha Graham)
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. View quote
Martha Graham
My childhood years were a balance of dark and light. View quote
Martha Graham
...Although, as the Latin verb to educate, educate, indicates, it is not a question of putting something in but drawing it out, if it is there to begin with...I want all of my students and all of my dancers to be aware of the poignancy of life at that moment. I would like to feel that I had, in some way, given them the gift of themselves. View quote
Martha Graham
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. View quote
Martha Graham
The center of the stage is where I am. View quote
Martha Graham
Dancers today can do anything; the technique is phenomenal. The passion and the meaning to their movement can be another thing. View quote
Martha Graham
I don't think in art there is ever a precedent; each moment is a new one and terrifying and threatening and bursting with hope. View quote
Martha Graham
One can always lament, you know - but to laugh in the face of life, that's very hard. And for me the great tragedian should also be a great comedian. View quote
Martha Graham
America does not concern itself now with Impressionism. We own no involved philosophy. The psyche of the land is to be found in its movement. It is to be felt as a dramatic force of energy and vitality. We move we do not stand still. We have not yet arrived at the stock-taking stage. View quote
Martha Graham
I use the words gods and goddesses principally, I think, to mean beautiful bodies - bodies that are absolute instruments. And I believe in discipline, I believe in a very definite technique. (Martha Graham)
Sometimes it's blood memory... not the blood your mother and father gave you... but that which stretches back two or three thousand years. View quote
Martha Graham
Pity is a corroding thing. View quote
Martha Graham
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. View quote
Martha Graham
The body is shaped, disciplined, honoured, and in time, trusted. The movement becomes clean, precise, eloquent, truthful. Movement never lies. It is a barometer telling the state of the soul's weather to all who can read it. This might be called the law of the dancer's life - the law which governs the outer aspects. View quote
Martha Graham
I don't try to tell the dancers exactly what a dance means before they do it. I can correct it and tell them what they have done after they have done it, and what it means to me. But I don't say, "Be fearful here," "Be angry here," because I think that is intrusion. View quote
Martha Graham
To me, the body says what words cannot. 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. Dance is the hidden language of the soul, of the body. And it's partly the language that we don't want to show. View quote
Martha Graham