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 GRAHAMThe past is not dead; it is not even past. People live on inner time; the moment in which a decisive thought or feeling takes place can be at any time. Timeless feelings are common to all of us.
More Martha Graham Quotes
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Dance is the hidden language of the soul, of the body.
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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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I believe one thing: that today is yesterday and tomorrow is today and you can’t stop.
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Wherever a dancer stands is holy ground.
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Stand up! Keep your backs straight! Remember that this is where the wings grow.
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Nothing is more revealing than movement.
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Dancers today can do anything; the technique is phenomenal. The passion and the meaning to their movement can be another thing.
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Dance is the landscape of man’s soul.
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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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In a dancer, there is a reverence for such forgotten things as the miracle of the small beautiful bones and their delicate strength.
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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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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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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.
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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.
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I am absorbed in the magic of movement and light. Movement never lies. It is the magic of what I call the outer space of the imagination.
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Some men have thousands of reasons why they cannot do what they want to, when all they need is one reason why they can.
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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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Dancers are the messengers of the gods.
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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.
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Our arms start from the back because they were once wings.
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The unique must be fulfilled.
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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.
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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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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.
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Practice is a means of inviting the perfection desired.
MARTHA GRAHAM