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.
MARTHA GRAHAMI have spent all my life with dance and being a dancer. It’s permitting life to use you in a very intense way. Sometimes it is not pleasant. Sometimes it is fearful. But nevertheless it is inevitable.
More Martha Graham Quotes
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The body is a sacred garment. It’s your first and last garment; it is what you enter life in and what you depart life with, and it should be treated with honor.
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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.
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Dancers are the messengers of the gods.
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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.
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Fire is the test of gold; adversity, of strong men.
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Nothing is more revealing than movement.
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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.
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Nobody cares if you can’t dance well. Just get up and dance. Great dancers are great because of their passion.
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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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It is not your business to determine how good it is, nor how valuable it is, nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open.
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The center of the stage is where I am.
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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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What people in the world think of you is really none of your business.
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The world I’m interested in is the one where things are not named.
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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.
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Freedom to a dancer means discipline. That is what technique is for — liberation.
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The reason dance has held such an ageless magic for the world is that it has been the symbol of the performance of living.
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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.
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Great dancers are not great because of their technique, they are great because of their passion.
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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.
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You don’t pick dance. Dance picks you.
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Dance is the hidden language of the soul, of the body.
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Our arms start from the back because they were once wings.
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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.
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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.
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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.
MARTHA GRAHAM