Martha Graham Quotes - Page 4

Quotes about:

• 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.

  Martha Graham

  Storm, Technique, Adequate

  "Martha Graham Reflects on Her Art and a Life in Dance". archive.nytimes.com. March 31, 1985.

  9 Copy quote

• Modern dance isn't anything except one thing in my mind: the freedom of women in America.

  Martha Graham

  Women, America, Mind

  22 Copy quote

• ...Although, as the Latin verb to educate, educate, indicates, it is not a question of putting something in but drawing it out, if it is there to begin with...I want all of my students and all of my dancers to be aware of the poignancy of life at that moment. I would like to feel that I had, in some way, given them the gift of themselves.

  Martha Graham

  Latin, Teaching, Drawing

  6 Copy quote

• 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

  Depression, Giving, Faces

  14 Copy quote

• The body is a sacred garment.

  Martha Graham

  Inspirational, Dance, Health

  Martha Graham (1991). “Blood Memory”, Washington Square Press

  15 Copy quote

• Fire is the test of gold; adversity, of strong men.

  Martha Graham

  Leadership, Being Strong, Work

  12 Copy quote

• The gesture is the thing truly expressive of the individual - as we think so will we act.

  Martha Graham

  Thinking, Body, Gestures

  9 Copy quote

• It takes ten years, usually, to make a dancer. It takes ten years of handling the instrument, handling the material with which you are dealing, for you to know it completely.

  Martha Graham

  Dance, Years, Dancing

  9 Copy quote

• 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

  Dance, Thinking, Mirrors

  Martha Graham (1991). “Blood Memory”, Washington Square Press

  10 Copy quote

• It's not my job to look beautiful. It's my job to look interesting.

  Martha Graham

  Beautiful, Jobs, Interesting

  10 Copy quote

• 'Age' is the acceptance of a term of years. But maturity is the glory of years.

  Martha Graham

  Acceptance, Maturity, Years

  17 Copy quote

• The body is shaped, disciplined, honored, and in time, trusted.

  Martha Graham

  Body, Honored, Trusted

  Martha Graham (1991). “Blood memory”, Doubleday

  8 Copy quote

• The unique must be fulfilled.

  Martha Graham

  Unique, Fulfilled

  9 Copy quote

• You see, when weaving a blanket, an Indian woman leaves a flaw in the weaving of that blanket to let the soul out.

  Martha Graham

  Inspirational, Motivational, Dance

  73 Copy quote

• I did not want to be a tree, a flower or a wave. In a dancer's body, we as audience must see ourselves, not the imitated behavior of everyday actions, not the phenomenon of nature, not exotic creatures from another planet, but something of the miracle that is a human being.

  Martha Graham

  Dance, Flower, Tree

  14 Copy quote

• Dancers have more bones than most people and on the days when you work hard you are sure that you have somehow accumulated more bones than you started with.

  Martha Graham

  Dance, Hard Work, People

  Martha Graham (1991). “Blood Memory”, Washington Square Press

  4 Copy quote

• 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.

  Martha Graham

  Dance, Art, Memories

  16 Copy quote

• 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

  Dance, Lying, Passion

  15 Copy quote

• I'm asked so often whether I believe in life after death. I do believe in the sanctity of life, the continuity of life and of energy. I know the anonymity of death has no appeal for me. It is the now that I must face and want to face.

  Martha Graham

  Believe, Continuity Of Life, Wicked

  7 Copy quote

• Dancing is just discovery, discovery, discovery - what it all means, the way the little bone near the ankle relates itself to the floor for a perfect stance, a perfect plie.

  Martha Graham

  Dance, Discovery, Dancing

  "Martha Graham Reflects on Her Art and a Life in Dance". archive.nytimes.com. March 31, 1985.

  15 Copy quote

• 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

  Dance, Dancing, Looks

  "The American Dance" (1935)

  11 Copy quote

• 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

  Kissing, Dislike Me, Apathetic

  Martha Graham (1991). “Blood memory”, Doubleday

  4 Copy quote

• In a dancer, there is a reverence for such forgotten things as the miracle of the small beautiful bones and their delicate strength.

  Martha Graham

  Beautiful, Dance, Forgotten Things

  Martha Graham (1991). “Blood Memory”, Washington Square Press

  13 Copy quote

• All things I do are in every woman. Every woman is Medea. Every woman is Jocasta. There comes a time when a woman is a mother to her husband. Clytemnestra is every woman when she kills.

  Martha Graham

  Mother, Husband, Wicked

  Martha Graham (1991). “Blood Memory”, Washington Square Press

  7 Copy quote

• 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, Thinking, Moments

  "Blood Memory".

  9 Copy quote

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