Martha Graham was an American modern dancer and choreographer. Her style, the Graham technique, reshaped American dance and is still taught worldwide. Inspirational Martha Graham quotes will encourage you to think a little deeper than you usually would and broaden your perspective.
Famous Martha Graham Quotes
Dance is the hidden language of the soul. Martha Graham
The only sin is mediocrity. Martha Graham
Nobody cares if you can’t dance well. Just get up and dance. Martha Graham
The spine is the tree of life. Respect it. Martha Graham
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
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
I feel that the essence of dance is the expression of man the landscape of his soul. Martha Graham
Nobody cares if you can’t dance well. Just get up and dance. Great dancers are great because of their passion. Martha Graham
Dancers are the messengers of the gods. Martha Graham
Great dancers are not great because of their technique, they are great because of their passion. Martha Graham
Dance is a song of the body. Either of joy or pain. Martha Graham
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
Think of the magic of the foot, comparatively small, upon which your whole weight rests. It’s a miracle and the dance is a celebration of that miracle. Martha Graham
Dance is the hidden language of the soul of the body. Martha Graham
I am a dancer. I believe that we learn by practice. Whether it means to learn to dance by practicing dancing or to learn to live by practicing living. Martha Graham
Discipline is liberation. Martha Graham
Dancing is just discovery, discovery, discovery. Martha Graham
Fire is the test of gold; adversity, of strong men. Martha Graham
Nothing is more revealing than movement. Martha Graham
I believe that we learn by practice. Martha Graham
The body never lies. Martha Graham
The body says what words cannot. Martha Graham
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 is a song of the body. Either of joy or pain. Martha Graham
Theater is a verb before it is a noun, an act before it is a place. Martha Graham
Dance is communication, and so the great challenge is to speak clearly, beautifully and with inevitability. Martha Graham
I hope that every dance I do reveals something of myself or some wonderful thing a human can be. Martha Graham
Freedom to a dancer means discipline. That is what technique is for liberation. Martha Graham
Movement never lies. It is a barometer telling the state of the soul’s weather to all who can read it. Martha Graham
What people in the world think of you is really none of your business. Martha Graham
Dance is communication, and so the great challenge is to speak clearly, beautifully and with inevitability. Martha Graham
You are unique, and if that is not fulfilled, then something has been lost. Martha Graham
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
Movement never lies. It is a barometer telling the state of the soul’s weather to all who can read it. Martha Graham
The body is your instrument in dance, but your art is outside that creature, the body. Martha Graham
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
The body says what words cannot. Martha Graham
Wherever a dancer stands is holy ground. 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. Martha Graham
Dancing is just discovery, discovery, discovery. Martha Graham
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 a miracle. Martha Graham
In the end, it all comes down to the art of breathing. Martha Graham
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
What makes a great dancer is not technique. What makes a great dancer is passion. Martha Graham
Practice means to perform, over and over again in the face of all obstacles, some act of vision, of faith, of desire. 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. Martha Graham
Practice is a means of inviting the perfection desired. Martha Graham
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
