Andy Warhol portrait of Martha Graham
“You are unique, and if that is not fulfilled, then something has
been lost.”
“The body is a sacred garment.”
“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 be
lost.”
"The body says what words cannot.”
“No artist is ahead of his time. He is his time. It is just that the
others are behind the time.”
“Dance is the hidden language of the soul.”
"Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.
Great dancers are not great because of their technique, they
are great because of their passion.”
“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.”
“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. There is a great deal of outer space, distant from
our daily lives, where I feel our imagination wanders
sometimes. It will find a planet or it will not find a planet, and
that is what a dancer does.”
“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.”