“It takes at least five years of rigorous training to be spontaneous.” — Martha Graham Copy Share Image
“A dancer isn't great because of their technique...they're great because of their passion.” — Martha Graham Copy Share Image
The reason dance has held such an ageless magic for the world is that it has been the symbol of the performance… — Martha Graham Copy Share Image
Modern dance isn't anything except one thing in my mind: the freedom of women in America. — Martha Graham Copy Share Image
Dance is communication, and so the great challenge is to speak clearly, beautifully and with inevitability. — Martha Graham Copy Share Image
People have asked me why I chose to be a dancer. I did not choose. I was chosen to be a dancer,… — Martha Graham Copy Share Image
Great dancers are not great because of their technique, they are great because of their passion. — Martha Graham Copy Share Image
You see, when weaving a blanket, an Indian woman leaves a flaw in the weaving of that blanket to let the soul… — Martha Graham Copy Share Image
It's what I always wanted to do, to show the laughter, the fun, the joy of dance. — Martha Graham Copy Share Image
Dancing is a very living art. It is essentially of the moment, although a very old art. A dancer's art is lived… — Martha Graham Copy Share Image
The next time you look into the mirror, just look at the way the ears rest next to the head; look at… — Martha Graham Copy Share Image
It takes ten years, usually, to make a dancer. It takes ten years of handling the instrument, handling the material with which… — Martha Graham Copy Share Image
Dancers have more bones than most people and on the days when you work hard you are sure that you have somehow… — Martha Graham Copy Share Image
A dancer must listen to his body and pay homage to it. Behind the movement lies this terrible, driving passion, this necessity.… — Martha Graham Copy Share Image
I've relaxed my feelings about other companies performing my works. I have never in principle been against my ballets being danced by… — Martha Graham Copy Share Image
The body is your instrument in dance, but your art is outside that creature, the body. I don't leap and jump anymore.… — Martha Graham Copy Share Image
I believe that we learn by practice... it is the performance of a dedicated precise set of acts, physical or intellectual, from… — Martha Graham Copy Share Image
The body is your instrument in dance, but your art is outside that creature, the body. — Martha Graham Copy Share Image
Stand up! Keep your backs straight! Remember that this is where the wings grow. — Martha Graham Copy Share Image
In a dancer, there is a reverence for such forgotten things as the miracle of the small beautiful bones and their delicate… — Martha Graham Copy Share Image
No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a strange, divine dissatisfaction , a blessed… — Martha Graham Copy Share Image
All that is important is this one moment in movement. Make the moment important, vital, and worth living. Do not let it… — Martha Graham Copy Share Image
I did not want to be a tree, a flower or a wave. In a dancer's body, we as audience must see… — Martha Graham Copy Share Image
At the time I started in ballet they were dancing 'The Spirit of Champagne' on pointe, in Paris. I thought, 'I don't… — Martha Graham Copy Share Image
I believe that dance was the first art. A philosopher has said that dance and architecture were the first arts. I believe… — Martha Graham Copy Share Image
Every dance is a kind of fever chart, a graph of the heart. The instrument through which the dance speaks is also… — Martha Graham Copy Share Image
We look at the dance to impart the sensation of living in an affirmation of life, to energize the spectator into keener… — Martha Graham Copy Share Image
You can be Eastern or Burmese or what have you, but the function of the body and the awareness of the body… — Martha Graham Copy Share Image
“There is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist… — Martha Graham Copy Share Image
When you start with an idea, or something hits you, then you have to follow that through to the end, and it's… — Martha Graham Copy Share Image
I feel that the essence of dance is the expression of man--the landscape of his soul. I hope that every dance I… — Martha Graham Copy Share Image
The main thing, of course, always, is the fact that there is only one of you in the world, just one, and… — Martha Graham Copy Share Image
I did not want to be a tree, a flower or a wave. In a dancer's body, we as audience must see… — Martha Graham Copy Share Image
You have no right to go before a public without an adequate technique, just because you feel. Anything feels - a leaf feels, a… — Martha Graham Copy Share Image
“There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one… — Martha Graham Copy Share Image
People have asked me why I chose to be a dancer. I did not choose. I was chosen to be a dancer, and with… — Martha Graham Copy Share Image
All things I do are in every woman. Every woman is Medea. Every woman is Jocasta. There comes a time when a woman is… — Martha Graham Copy Share Image
The secret to dancing is that it is about everything except dancing. — Martha Graham Copy Share Image
What makes a great dancer is not technique. What makes a great dancer is passion. — Martha Graham Copy Share Image
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… — Martha Graham Copy Share Image
You are unique, and if that is not fulfilled, then something has been lost. — Martha Graham Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
