The body says what words cannot.
Martha GrahamRead
Wherever a dancer stands is holy ground.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the sanctity and significance of a dancer's presence and expression in any space.
Martha Graham's quote reflects the idea that a dancer brings beauty, spirituality, and intentionality to their environment. When a dancer performs, the space transforms into a sacred place, filled with artistry and emotion, underscoring the profound impact of dance on both the performer and the audience.
In practice
In a discussion about the influence of art, one could reference this quote to highlight the emotional power of performance.
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.
I am still a victim of chess. It has all the beauty of art - and much more. It cannot be commercialized. Chess is much purer than art in its social position.
The desire for symmetry, for balance, for rhythm in form as well as in sound, is one of the most inveterate of human instincts.
What I am interested in now is the landscape. Pictures without people. I wouldn't be surprised if eventually there are no people in my pictures. It is so emotional.
Let my soul, a shining tree, Silver branches lift towards thee, Where on a hallowed winter's night The clear-eyed angels may alight.
Between beauty of expression and power of expression there is a difference of function. The first aims at pleasing the senses, the second has a spiritual vitality which for me is more moving and goes deeper than the senses.
Thereβs always been this hocus-pocus or magical, mystical thing associated with the making of film that sort of psyches people out and makes them think that this cannot be done; that this is a craft that cannot be learned.
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