“I don't try to tell the dancers exactly what a dance means before they do it.”

— Martha Graham

New York Times interview (1985)
Context: I don't try to tell the dancers exactly what a dance means before they do it. I can correct it and tell them what they have done after they have done it, and what it means to me. But I don't say, "Be fearful here," "Be angry here," because I think that is intrusion.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "I don't try to tell the dancers exactly what a dance means before they do it." by Martha Graham?

Martha Graham 48

American dancer and choreographer 1894–1991

Related quotes

“If a dancer dances - which is not the same as having theories about dancing or wishing to dance or trying to dance or remembering in his body someone else's dance - but if the dancer dances, everything is there.... our ecstasy in dance comes from the possible gift of freedom, the exhilarating moment that this exposing of the bare energy can give us. What is meant is not license, but freedom…”

Merce Cunningham (1919–2009) American dancer

1952
from the front-page of the website of the Merce Cunningham Trust http://www.mercecunningham.org/merce-cunningham/

“I said … unprepared, unscripted, that, "I know how to fight and I know how to dance, and I'd much rather dance than fight." ... What I didn't tell everybody was I was always a better fighter than dancer.”

Harry Reid (1939) American politician

Source: "Reid Says He's A Fighter Who'd Rather Dance", All Things Considered, NPR (18 May 2010) https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126905578