The body says what words cannot.
Martha GrahamRead
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.
Interpretation
Each artistic moment is unique and filled with both challenges and possibilities.
Martha Graham emphasizes the idea that in art, every moment presents a fresh and daunting opportunity. She suggests that instead of relying on past examples or precedents, artists should embrace the uncertainty and excitement of creating something new, which is filled with potential hope and inspiration.
In practice
In an art class, while discussing the value of originality, I shared this quote to encourage students to embrace their own creative journeys.
The body says what words cannot.
Nobody cares if you can't dance well.
Movement never lies. It is a barometer telling the state of the soul's weather to all who can read it.
What people in the world think of you is really none of your business.
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.
The body is your instrument in dance, but your art is outside that creature, the body.
All movies assault the viewer in one way or another.
I was scared to do anything in the studio because it felt so claustrophobic. I wanted to be somewhere where things could happen and the subject wasn't just looking back at you.
Thereβs something very important about films about black women and girls being made by black women. Itβs a different perspective. It is a reflection as opposed to an interpretation, and I think we get a lot of interpretations about the lives of women that are not coming from women.
I think my work has to do with a sense that we are attempting, all the time, to create a logical, rational path through the day. To the left and right there are an amazing set of distractions that we usually can't afford to follow. But the poet is willing to stop anywhere.
Fiction is a piece of truth that turns lies to meaning.
If a poet interprets a poem of his own he limits its suggestibility.
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