black
grey
blue
red
brown
white

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

Martha Graham

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
The gesture is the thing truly expressive of the individual – as we think so will we act.
MARTHA GRAHAM

Act Expression Thinking True
The body says what words cannot.
MARTHA GRAHAM

Body One Liner Word
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
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

Dance Essence Expression Feeling Hope Human Myself Soul Wonderful
A dancer must listen to his body and pay homage to it. Behind the movement lies this terrible, driving passion, this necessity. I won’t settle for anything less.
MARTHA GRAHAM

Body Dance Listening Movement Myself Necessary Pay Terrible
Nobody cares if you can’t dance well. Just get up and dance. Great dancers are great because of their passion.
MARTHA GRAHAM

Care Dance Greatness Inspirational Passion
Misery is a communicable disease.
MARTHA GRAHAM

Communication Misery Sick
The secret to dancing is that it is about everything except dancing.
MARTHA GRAHAM

Dance Exception Freedom Secret
Dancers today can do anything; the technique is phenomenal. The passion and the meaning to their movement can be another thing.
MARTHA GRAHAM

Dance Meaning Movement Passion Technique
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.
MARTHA GRAHAM

Audience Death Kiss Myself
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
Stand up! Keep your backs straight! Remember that this is where the wings grow.
MARTHA GRAHAM

Growth Inspirational Remember Stand Wings
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
I am certain that movement never lies. There is only one law of posture I have been able to discover – the perpendicular line connecting heaven and earth.
MARTHA GRAHAM

Connection Discover Earth Heaven Law Lying Movement
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.
MARTHA GRAHAM

Ambition Enough Fact Fulfill Lost Necessary World Yourself
My dancing is not an attempt to interpret life in the literary sense. It is an affirmation of life through movement.
MARTHA GRAHAM

Dance Life Literature Movement
Dance is communication, and so the great challenge is to speak clearly, beautifully and with inevitability.
MARTHA GRAHAM

Beautiful Challenge Communication Dance Greatness Inevitable
Art is eternal for it reveals the inner landscape which is the soul of man.
MARTHA GRAHAM

Art Eternity Forever Man Soul
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.
MARTHA GRAHAM

Body Celebration Dance Growth Hands Mirror Thinking Time Way Yourself
My childhood years were a balance of dark and light.
MARTHA GRAHAM

Children Darkness Time
You will only get out of a dance class what you bring to it. Learn by practice.
MARTHA GRAHAM

Class Dance Learning Practice Yourself
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
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.
MARTHA GRAHAM

Creativity Lost Pattern Time Unique
You don’t pick dance. Dance picks you.
MARTHA GRAHAM

Dance Inspirational Style Yourself
Dancers are the messengers of the gods.
MARTHA GRAHAM

Dance God Message
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

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