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Martha Graham

Martha Graham Quotes

Choreographer

Martha Graham, born on May 11, 1894, and died on April 1, 1991, was one of the pioneers of modern dance in the United States. Known as the 'Mother of Modern Dance', she was renowned for her unique dance style and profound emotional expression.

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Famous Martha Graham Quotes

“Wherever a dancer stands is holy ground.”

Holy Dancing Dance Dancer Just Dance Holy Ground

Author:Martha Graham

“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.”

Has Beens Able Earth Law Lying Certain Heaven Lines Movement Dance Connecting Posture Heaven And Earth Never Lie

Author:Martha Graham

“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.”

Firsts Humans Two Body Wanted Dies Wish Human Beings Steps Changed Dance Dancer Ballet Accommodate Medea

Book:Blood Memory

Source: Blood Memory

“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.”

Body Lying Passion Pay Behinds Movement Terrible Dance Driving Settling Dancer Homage

Author:Martha Graham

“First we have to believe, and then we believe.”

Firsts Believe Belief Dance

Author:Martha Graham

“If I can't dance, I don't care if my dances are ever done again!”

Ifs I Can Done Care Dance Don't Care I Don't Care

Author:Martha Graham

“My dancing is not an attempt to interpret life in the literary sense. It is an affirmation of life through movement.”

Movement Dancing Dance Affirmation

Author:Martha Graham

“To me, this acquirement of nervous, physical, and emotional concentration is the one element possessed to the highest degree by the truly great dancers of the world. Its acquirement is the result of discipline, of energy in the deep sense. That is why there are so few great dancers.”

World Energy Results Emotional Discipline Degrees Elements Highest Dance Nervous Dancer Concentration Possessed

Author:Martha Graham

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

Inspirational Soul Inspiration Motivational Motivation Dance Indian Flaws Blanket Weaving

Author:Martha Graham

“There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique, and if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium, and be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is, not how it compares with other expression. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open.”

Ifs World Action Lost Force Expression Unique Yoga Dance Determine Block Mediums All Time Compare Vitality Unrest Choreographers Dance Life Quickening Dance Is Life Force And Energy

Author:Martha Graham

“...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.”

Ifs Way Want Feels Moments Given Teaching Students Drawing Dancer That Moment Latin Educate Verbs Poignancy

Author:Martha Graham

“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.”

Light Lying Imagination Space Magic Movement Outer Space Never Lie

Book:Blood Memory

Source: Blood Memory

“The center of the stage is where I am.”

Book:Blood Memory

Source: Blood Memory

“The reason dance has held such an ageless magic for the world is that it has been the symbol of the performance of living.”

World Has Beens Reason Magic Performances Symbols Ageless

Book:Blood Memory

Source: Blood Memory

“I have spent all my life with dance and being a dancer. It's permitting life to use you in a very intense way. Sometimes it is not pleasant. Sometimes it is fearful. But nevertheless it is inevitable.”

Way Sometimes Use Intense Inevitable Pleasant Dancer Fearful Nevertheless Dance Is Life

Author:Martha Graham

“The body is your instrument in dance, but your art is outside that creature, the body. I don't leap and jump anymore. I look at young dancers, and I am envious, more aware of what glories the body contains. But sensitivity is not made dull by age.”

Looks Art Made Body Age Young Creatures Glory Art Is Instruments Dull Dancer Leap Ballet Sensitivity Envious

Author:Martha Graham

“In the end, it all comes down to the art of breathing.”

Art Ends Dancing Breathing Pitcher Romantic Movie Love Beautiful Romantic Baseball Pitcher Romantic Film

Author:Martha Graham

“Sometimes it's blood memory... not the blood your mother and father gave you... but that which stretches back two or three thousand years.”

Years Two Sometimes Mother Three Father Memories Blood Thousand Dancing Thousand Years Mother And Father

Author:Martha Graham

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

Inspirational Class Practice Dancing Dance Class

Author:Martha Graham

“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.”

Mother Husband All Things Wicked There Comes A Time Medea

Book:Blood Memory

Source: Blood Memory

“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.”

Knows Want Believe Faces Energy I Believe I Believe In Appeals Wicked Continuity After Death Sanctity Anonymity Life After Death Sanctity Of Life Continuity Of Life

Author: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.”

Should Firsts Body Lasts Healing Honor Sacred Treated Garments Firsts And Lasts

Book:Blood Memory

Source: Blood Memory

“Nobody cares if you can't dance well.”

“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.”

Thinking Art Moments Threatening Precedent Bursting

Author:Martha Graham

“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.”

Artist Alive Divine Strange Blessed Dance Satisfaction Vitality Dissatisfaction Unrest Choreographers Quickening

Author:Martha Graham

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

Body Trusted Honored

Book:Blood Memory

Source: Blood Memory

“Theater used to be a verb; it used to be an act. But nowadays it is just a noun. It is a place.”

Used Drama Theater Used To Be Verbs Nouns

Author:Martha Graham

“The 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.”

People Moments Feelings Past Time Common Timeless

Author:Martha Graham

“I believe one thing: that today is yesterday and tomorrow is today and you can't stop.”

Believe Today I Believe One Thing Tomorrow Yesterday Yesterday And Tomorrow

Author:Martha Graham

“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.”

Unique All Time Being Unique

Author:Martha Graham

“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.”

Ifs Lost Creativity Unique Patterns All Time

Author:Martha Graham

“Art is eternal for it reveals the inner landscape which is the soul of man.”

Men Art Soul Eternal Art Is Landscape

Book:Blood Memory

Source: Blood Memory

“You give all your life to doing this one thing. It sounds grim, it sounds frightening - it isn't - it has a great gaiety at times and a great wonder.”

Life Giving Sound Wonder One Thing Frightening Grim Gaiety

Author:Martha Graham

“My childhood years were a balance of dark and light.”

Years Light Dark Childhood Balance

Author:Martha Graham

“You don't pick dance. Dance picks you.”

Author:Martha Graham

“One can always lament, you know — but to laugh in the face of life, that's very hard. And for me the great tragedian should also be a great comedian.”

Knows Should Hard Faces Laughing Comedian Lament

Author:Martha Graham

“I love words very much. I've always loved to talk, and I've always love words — the words that rest in your mouth, what words mean and how you taste them and so on. And for me the spoken word can be used almost as a gesture.”

Mean Used Taste Mouths Gestures Spoken Word

Author:Martha Graham

“I believe that we learn by practice.”

Believe I Believe Practice

Book:Blood Memory

Source: Blood Memory

“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.”

Ideas Ends Patterns Following Choreography Follow Through

Author:Martha Graham

“America does not concern itself now with Impressionism. We own no involved philosophy. The psyche of the land is to be found in its movement. It is to be felt as a dramatic force of energy and vitality. We move; we do not stand still. We have not yet arrived at the stock-taking stage.”

Doe Stills Philosophy America Moving Found Energy Force Felt Land Stage Movement Involved Concern Dramatic Vitality Impressionism

Author:Martha Graham

About the Author

Born: May 11, 1894
Died: April 1, 1991
Known for: Choreographer
Quotes: 140

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