Martha Graham, born on May 11, 1894, was an American dancer and choreographer who revolutionized modern dance with her groundbreaking techniques and innovative approach to movement. As the founder of the Martha Graham Dance Company, she pioneered a new form of dance expression that focused on emotional intensity, angular movements, and the exploration of the human psyche. Graham’s choreography challenged traditional notions of dance, drawing inspiration from Greek mythology, American folklore, and psychological themes. Her iconic works, such as “Appalachian Spring” and “Night Journey,” have left an indelible mark on the world of dance, earning her acclaim as one of the most influential choreographers of the 20th century. Beyond her artistic contributions, Graham was a trailblazer for women in dance, defying societal norms and breaking barriers in a male-dominated industry. Her legacy continues to inspire dancers and choreographers worldwide, shaping the evolution of modern dance for generations to come.
Martha Graham
1. “The only sin is mediocrity.”
— Martha Graham
2. “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
3. “The spine is the tree of life. Respect it.”
— Martha Graham
4. “Nobody cares if you can’t dance well. Just get up and dance. Great dancers are great because of their passion.”
— Martha Graham
5. “Great dancers are not great because of their technique, they are great because of their passion.”
— Martha Graham
6. “Dance is the hidden language of the soul of the body.”
— Martha Graham
7. “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
8. “Discipline is liberation.”
— Martha Graham
9. “Fire is the test of gold; adversity, of strong men.”
— Martha Graham
10. “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. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable 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
11. “I believe that we learn by practice.”
— Martha Graham
12. “The body says what words cannot.”
— Martha Graham
13. “All that is important is this one moment in movement. Make the moment important, vital, and worth living. Do not let it slip away unnoticed and unused.”
— Martha Graham
14. “We learn by practice. Whether it means to learn to dance by practicing dancing or to learn to live by practicing living, the principles are the same. One becomes in some area an athlete of God.”
— Martha Graham
15. “Wherever a dancer stands is holy ground.”
— Martha Graham
16. “Dance is a song of the body. Either of joy or pain.”
— Martha Graham
17. “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.”
— Martha Graham
18. “What people in the world think of you is really none of your business.”
— Martha Graham
19. “You are unique, and if that is not fulfilled, then something has been lost.”
— Martha Graham
20. “Movement never lies. It is a barometer telling the state of the soul’s weather to all who can read it.”
— Martha Graham
21. “Dance is communication, and so the great challenge is to speak clearly, beautifully and with inevitability.”
— Martha Graham
22. “Freedom to a dancer means discipline. That is what technique is for – liberation.”
— Martha Graham
23. “Dancing is just discovery, discovery, discovery.”
— Martha Graham
24. “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
25. “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
26. “Art is eternal for it reveals the inner landscape which is the soul of man.”
— Martha Graham
27. “In the end, it all comes down to the art of breathing.”
— Martha Graham
28. “There is only one you in all time.”
— Martha Graham
29. “What makes a great dancer is not technique. What makes a great dancer is passion.”
— Martha Graham
30. “It’s not my job to look beautiful. It’s my job to look interesting.”
— Martha Graham
31. “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
32. “The center of the stage is where I am.”
— Martha Graham
33. “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
34. “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
35. “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
36. “Stand up! Keep your backs straight! Remember that this is where the wings grow.”
— Martha Graham
37. “Repetition not for monotony but the ecstasy it induces.”
— Martha Graham
38. “No artist is ahead of his time. He is his time; it is just that others are behind the times.”
— Martha Graham
39. “The body is shaped, disciplined, honored, and in time, trusted.”
— Martha Graham
40. “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.”
— Martha Graham
41. “Some men have thousands of reasons why they cannot do what they want to, when all they need is one reason why they can.”
— Martha Graham
42. “The body is your instrument in dance, but your art is outside that creature, the body.”
— Martha Graham
43. “The body is a sacred garment.”
— Martha Graham
44. “Practice is a means of inviting the perfection desired.”
— Martha Graham
45. “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
46. “There is fatigue so great that the body cries, even in its sleep.”
— Martha Graham
47. “The unique must be fulfilled.”
— Martha Graham
48. “The gesture is the thing truly expressive of the individual – as we think so will we act.”
— Martha Graham
49. “My dancing is not an attempt to interpret life in the literary sense. It is an affirmation of life through movement.”
— Martha Graham
50. “I get up, I fall down, all the while I am dancing.”
— Martha Graham
51. “Dancers are the messengers of the gods.”
— Martha Graham
52. “Nothing is more revealing than movement.”
— Martha Graham
53. “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
54. “You don’t pick dance. Dance picks you.”
— Martha Graham
55. “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
57. “I want to make people feel intensely alive. I’d rather have them against me than indifferent.”
— Martha Graham
58. “Pity is a corroding thing.”
— Martha Graham
59. “I believe one thing: that today is yesterday and tomorrow is today and you can’t stop.”
— Martha Graham
60. “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
61. “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
62. “Theater is a verb before it is a noun, an act before it is a place.”
— Martha Graham
63. “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
64. “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
65. “You will only get out of a dance class what you bring to it. Learn by practice.”
— Martha Graham
66. “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.”
— Martha Graham
67. “The secret to dancing is that it is about everything except dancing.”
— Martha Graham
68. “Every dance is a kind of fever chart, a graph of the heart.”
— Martha Graham
69. “To me, the body says what words cannot. I believe that dance was the first art.”
— Martha Graham
70. “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
71. “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
72. “Misery is a communicable disease.”
— Martha Graham
73. “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.”
— Martha Graham
74. “It’s what I always wanted to do, to show the laughter, the fun, the joy of dance.”
— Martha Graham
75. “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.”
— Martha Graham
76. “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
77. “The world I’m interested in is the one where things are not named.”
— Martha Graham
78. “No animal ever has an ugly body until it is domesticated. It is the same with the human body.”
— Martha Graham
79. “Dancers today can do anything; the technique is phenomenal. The passion and the meaning to their movement can be another thing.”
— Martha Graham
80. “My childhood years were a balance of dark and light.”
— Martha Graham
81. “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.”
— Martha Graham
82. “Our arms start from the back because they were once wings.”
— Martha Graham
83. “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.”
— Martha Graham
84. “Modern dance isn’t anything except one thing in my mind: the freedom of women in America.”
— Martha Graham
85. “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
86. “Nothing is more revealing than movement. The body says what words cannot.”
— Martha Graham
87. “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
88. “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
89. “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
90. “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
91. “Nobody cares if you can’t dance well.”
— Martha Graham
92. “I never thought of myself as being a genius. I don’t know what genius is. I think a far better expression is a retriever, a lovely strong golden retriever that brings things back from the past, or retrieves things from our common blood memory.”
— Martha Graham
93. “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
94. “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
95. “Censorship is the height of vanity.”
— Martha Graham
96. “I did not choose to be a dancer. I was chosen.”
— Martha Graham
97. “If I can’t dance, I don’t care if my dances are ever done again!”
— Martha Graham
98. “First we have to believe, and then we believe.”
— Martha Graham
99. “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
100. “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
101. “To me, a building – if it’s beautiful – is the love of one man, he’s made it out of his love for space, materials, things like that.”
— Martha Graham
102. “You can be Eastern or Burmese or what have you, but the function of the body and the awareness of the body results in dance and you become a dancer, not just a human being.”
— Martha Graham
103. “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
104. “Theater used to be a verb; it used to be an act. But nowadays it is just a noun. It is a place.”
— Martha Graham
105. “In 1980, a well-meaning fundraiser came to see me and said, “Miss Graham, the most powerful thing you have going for you to raise money is your respectability.” I wanted to spit. Respectable! Show me any artist who wants to be respectable.”
— Martha Graham
106. “I think comedy is the most difficult thing in the world, I really do.”
— Martha Graham
107. “Some of you are doomed to be artists.”
— Martha Graham
108. “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
109. “It takes at least five years of rigorous training to be spontaneous.”
— Martha Graham
110. “There is a fatigue so great that the body cries, even in its sleep. There are times of complete frustration; there are daily small deaths.”
— Martha Graham
111. “At the time I started in ballet they were dancing ‘The Spirit of Champagne’ on pointe, in Paris. I thought, ‘I don’t want to dance the spirit of champagne, I want to drink it!”
— Martha Graham
112. “I never set out to create a technique. I started out on the floor to find myself, to find what the body could do, and what would give me satisfaction – emotionally, dramatically and bodily. But I did not ever dream of establishing a technique. I still can’t believe anything like that happened.”
— Martha Graham
113. “Dancing is very like poetry.”
— Martha Graham
114. “I don’t try to tell the dancers exactly what a dance means before they do it.”
— Martha Graham
