“tell me friend, just who are you dancing for?”
“I wanted to begin not with characters or ideas, but with movements . . .I wanted significant movement. I did not want it to be beautiful or fluid. I wanted it to be fraught with inner meaning, with excitement and surge.”
–Martha Graham
Often described as impacting dance the way Picasso impacted visual art, Martha Graham was one of the most important cornerstones of contemporary dance.
A pioneer from every angle, she not only was the first dancer to ever perform at the White House, but the first dancer to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest award that can be given to a civilian in the United States.
The ironic part of it is that despite all the honors bestowed upon her in her life of 96 years, she rarely, if ever, allowed her performances to be photographed or videotaped.
So when talking about things like dancing to express emotion and energy, what better example do we have than the woman who turned the concept of dance upside down and inside out?
Here is quote from Martha by way of her biographer Agnes DeMille:
“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 of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you…..no artist is pleased…there is only a queer divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than others”
If there is a better example of a driving philosophy for all of us to follow as dancers, as interpreters and conveyers of emotion through movement, I have yet to find it.
