Martha Graham Quotes - Page 2

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.

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 feel that the essence of dance is the expression of man--the landscape of his soul. I hope that every dance I do reveals something of myself or some wonderful thing a human can be.

The main thing, of course, always, is the fact that there is only one of you in the world, just one, and if that is not fulfilled then something has been lost. Ambition is not enough; necessity is everything.

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

Wherever a dancer stands is holy ground.

When you start with an idea, or something hits you, then you have to follow that through to the end, and it's the following through to the end that makes the pattern. That, for me, is choreography.

People have asked me why I chose to be a dancer. I did not choose. I was chosen to be a dancer, and with that, you live all your life.

It takes about ten years to make a mature dancer. The training is twofold. There is the study and practice of the craft in order to strengthen the muscular structure of the body. The body is shaped, disciplined, honored, and in time, trusted. The movement become 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 its outer aspects

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.

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

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.

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

Misery is a communicable disease.

The reason dance has held such an ageless magic for the world is that it has been the symbol of the performance of living.

Repetition not for monotony but the ecstasy it induces.

You will only get out of a dance class what you bring to it. Learn by practice.

Dancers are the messengers of the gods.

There is a force, a quickness that is translated through you into action. If you block it, the world will not have it.

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

Nothing is more revealing than movement.

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 of time, this expression is unique.

No animal ever has an ugly body until it is domesticated. It is the same with the human body.

Looking at the past is like lolling in a rocking chair. It is so relaxing and you can rock back and forth on the porch, and never go forward.

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