black
grey
blue
red
brown
white

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

Martha Graham

Age’ is the acceptance of a term of years. But maturity is the glory of years.
MARTHA GRAHAM

Acceptance Age Glory Maturity Time
Practice is a means of inviting the perfection desired.
MARTHA GRAHAM

Desire Invitation Perfection Practice
No artist is ahead of his time. He is his time; it is just that others are behind the times.
MARTHA GRAHAM

Artist Himself Time
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.
MARTHA GRAHAM

Body Life Respect Sacred Treat Yourself
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.
MARTHA GRAHAM

Business Compare Determination Direction Expression Value Yourself
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.
MARTHA GRAHAM

Art Hope Myself Thinking Threat
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.
MARTHA GRAHAM

Body Celebration Dance Magic Miracle Small Yourself
You will only get out of a dance class what you bring to it. Learn by practice.
MARTHA GRAHAM

Class Dance Learning Practice Yourself
My childhood years were a balance of dark and light.
MARTHA GRAHAM

Children Darkness Time
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.
MARTHA GRAHAM

Communication Depression Face Feeling Misery Sick
The gesture is the thing truly expressive of the individual – as we think so will we act.
MARTHA GRAHAM

Act Expression Thinking True
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.
MARTHA GRAHAM

Desire Face Faith Invitation Obstacle Perfection Performance Practice Vision
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 GRAHAM

Affirmation Aware Dance Function Live Mystery Wonderful
I did not choose to be a dancer. I was chosen.
MARTHA GRAHAM

Choice Dance Myself Willing
Discipline is liberation.
MARTHA GRAHAM

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

Action Block Force Quick Translation World Yourself
It’s not my job to look beautiful. It’s my job to look interesting.
MARTHA GRAHAM

Beautiful Interest Job Myself
Dance is communication, and so the great challenge is to speak clearly, beautifully and with inevitability.
MARTHA GRAHAM

Beautiful Challenge Communication Dance Greatness Inevitable
The body says what words cannot.
MARTHA GRAHAM

Body One Liner Word
Wherever a dancer stands is holy ground.
MARTHA GRAHAM

Dance Dedication Holy Inspirational One Liner Passion Place Stand
Censorship is the height of vanity.
MARTHA GRAHAM

Censor One Liner
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.
MARTHA GRAHAM

Dance End Ideas Myself Pattern Start
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 time, this expression is unique.
MARTHA GRAHAM

Action Energy Expression Force Life Quick Translation Unique
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.
MARTHA GRAHAM

Believe Direction Motivational Open Willing Work Yourself
The reason dance has held such an ageless magic for the world is that it has been the symbol of the performance of living.
MARTHA GRAHAM

Age Dance Live Magic Performance Reason
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.
MARTHA GRAHAM

Believe Dedication Intellectual Learning Oneself Performance Practice Satisfaction Spirit
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

Believe Discipline God Principle Technique Thinking Word

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

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More Martha Graham Quotes