If I could tell you what it meant, there would be no point in dancing it
Isadora DuncanRead
I am seeking that dance which might be the divine expression of the human spirit through the medium of the body's movement.
Interpretation
The quote expresses a desire to connect deeply with the essence of being human through dance.
Isadora Duncan reflects on her quest to achieve a form of dance that transcends mere physical movement, aiming instead to capture and express the divine essence of the human experience. She suggests that dance can be a profound medium through which the innermost spirit and emotions are conveyed, emphasizing the artistic and spiritual connection inherent in this art form.
In practice
Using this quote in a dance performance program to highlight the artistic intent behind the choreography.
If I could tell you what it meant, there would be no point in dancing it
The dancer of the future will be one whose body & soul have grown so harmoniously together that the natural language of the soul will have become the movement of the body.
A dancer, if she is great, can give to the people something that they can carry with them forever. They can never forget it, and it has changed them, though they may never know it.
Master technique, so that technique NEVER prevents you from dancing.
Oh Woman, come before us, before our eyes longing for beauty, and tired of the ugliness of civilization, come in simple tunics, letting us see the line and harmony of the body beneath, and dance for us. Dance us the sweetness of life. Give us again the sweetness and the beauty of the true dance, give us again the joy of seeing the simple unconscious pure body of a woman. Like a great call it has come, and women must hear it and answer it.
I have only danced my life. As a child I danced the spontaneous joy of growing things. As an adolescent, I danced with joy turning to apprehension of the first realisation of tragic undercurrents; apprehension of the pitiless brutality and crushing progress of life.
You should make something. You should bring something into the world that wasn't in the world before. It doesn't matter what it is. It doesn't matter if it's a table or a film or gardening-everyone should create. You should do something, then sit back and say, 'I did that.'
How can even the best novelist or playwright invent someone like Augustus Caesar or Catherine the Great, Galileo or Florence Nightingale? How can screenwriters create better action stories or human dramas than exist, thousand upon thousand, throughout the many centuries of recorded history?
Lord Illingworth told me this morning that there was an orchid there as beautiful as the seven deadly sins.
With any part you play, there is a certain amount of yourself in it. There has to be, otherwise it's just not acting. It's lying.
Part of what horror is, is taking risks and going somewhere that people think you're not supposed to be able to go, in the name of expressing real-life fears.
I've written some great things. That's a gift, but there's consequences. Yeah, you get this great work, but you suffer. You really, really suffer.
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