Martha Graham Quotes - Page 2

Quotes about:

• 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.

  Martha Graham

  People, Dancer, Chosen

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

  73 Copy quote
• 

  Misery is a communicable disease.

  Martha Graham

  Attitude, Disease, Emotion

  88 Copy quote

• 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

  Men, Expression, Essence

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

  110 Copy quote

• You will only get out of a dance class what you bring to it. Learn by practice.

  Martha Graham

  Inspirational, Practice, Class

  20 Copy quote
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  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

  Life, Dance, Love Yourself

  "The Routledge Dance Studies Reader". Book by Alexandra Carter and Janet O'Shea, p. 96, 1998.

  102 Copy quote

• Dancing appears glamorous, easy, delightful. But the path to paradise of the achievement is not easier than any other. There is fatigue so great that the body cries, even in its sleep. There are times of complete frustration, there are daily small deaths.

  Martha Graham

  Dance, Sleep, Frustration

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

  42 Copy quote

• What makes a great dancer is not technique. What makes a great dancer is passion.

  Martha Graham

  Passion, Dancer, Technique

  15 Copy quote

• Discipline is liberation.

  Martha Graham

  Discipline, Liberation

  7 Copy quote

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

  Martha Graham

  Dance, Wings, Body

  81 Copy quote

• A dancer, more than any other human being, dies two deaths: the first, the physical when the powerfully trained body will no longer respond as you would wish. After all, I choreographed for myself. I never choreographed what I could not do. I changed steps in Medea and other ballets to accommodate the change. But I knew. And it haunted me. I only wanted to dance.

  Martha Graham

  Dance, Two, Ballet

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

  69 Copy quote

• No artist is ahead of his time. He is his time; it is just that others are behind the times.

  Martha Graham

  Motivational, Dance, Wisdom

  "Personal Quotes/ Biography". www.imdb.com.

  77 Copy quote

• 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.

  Martha Graham

  Lying, Light, Space

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

  13 Copy quote

• 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

  Inspirational, Dance, Mean

  23 Copy quote

• 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

  Dance, Lying, Law

  29 Copy quote

• 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 of time, this expression is unique.

  Martha Graham

  Unique, Being Unique, All Time

  "The Life and Work of Martha Graham". Book by Agnes de Mille, p. 264, 1991.

  17 Copy quote

• Dance is a song of the body. Either of joy or pain.

  Martha Graham

  Motivational, Dance, Song

  40 Copy quote

• It takes about ten years to make a mature dancer. The training is twofold. There is the study and practice of the craft in order to strengthen the muscular structure of the body. The body is shaped, disciplined, honored, and in time, trusted. The movement become clean, precise, eloquent, truthful. Movement never lies. It is a barometer telling the state of the soul's weather to all who can read it. This might be called the law of the dancer's life, the law which governs its outer aspects

  Martha Graham

  Lying, Order, Years

  21 Copy quote

• Dancers are the messengers of the gods.

  Martha Graham

  Dance, Dancing, Messengers

  24 Copy quote

• 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

  Magic, World, Reason

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

  28 Copy quote

• The world I'm interested in is the one where things are not named.

  Martha Graham

  Dance, World

  8 Copy quote

• 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

  Ideas, Patterns, Ends

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

  11 Copy quote

• Wherever a dancer stands is holy ground.

  Martha Graham

  Dance, Holy Ground, Dancing

  23 Copy quote

• 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

  Dance, Believe, Practice

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

  14 Copy quote

• Looking at the past is like lolling in a rocking chair. It is so relaxing and you can rock back and forth on the porch, and never go forward.

  Martha Graham

  Past, Rocks, Chairs

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

  39 Copy quote

• Repetition not for monotony but the ecstasy it induces.

  Martha Graham

  Repetition, Monotony, Ecstasy

  10 Copy quote

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