Wise Words
Martha Graham was born
on this day in 1894. Her advice to fellow dancer and choreographer Agnes de
Mille:
The greatest thing she ever said to me was in 1943 after the
opening of Oklahoma!, when I suddenly
had unexpected, flamboyant success for a work I thought was only fairly good,
after years of neglect for work I thought was fine. I was bewildered and
worried that my entire scale of values was untrustworthy. I talked to Martha. I
remember the conversation well. It was in a Schrafft’s restaurant over a soda.
I confessed that I had a burning desire to be excellent but no faith that I
could be. Martha said to me, very quietly, “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 it will 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 do not even
have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep yourself open and aware
to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. As for you, Agnes, you
have a peculiar and unusual gift, and you have so far used about one-third of
your talent.”
“But,” I said, “when I see my work I take for granted what
other people value in it. I see only its ineptitude, inorganic flaws, and
crudities. I am not pleased or satisfied.”
“No artist is pleased.”
“But then there is no satisfaction?”
Quoted from: Letters of Note
posted by Maggie Ross at 3:16 pm
7 Comments:
Oh how wise! Maggie thanks for posting this.
Oh my! strikes right to the core of what is exposed when speaking truth.
mike
Wonderful! I've read the long paragraph before, but never the full conversation and it's conclusion with "divine dissatisfaction" and "a blessed unrest." What powerful, provocative phrases. Thank you.
Is this why Christ is the way and not the rocking chair?
And why creation takes the long route through evolution?
Here
I can’t stay.
My only home is
The way’s
Here and now.
You
I can’t grasp.
You grasp my hand,
Easily and
We begin to walk.
Light
Is our burden:
Eye’s light,
Friendship’s salt and
Pilgrim's song
Heavenly sound,
Gracefully blue.
Thank you so much for this.
It reminds me a bit of TS Eliot's words in 'East Coker', written just a little earlier:
"…And what there is to conquer
By strength and submission, has already been discovered
Once or twice, or several times, by men whom one cannot hope
To emulate - but there is no competition -
There is only the fight to recover what has been lost
And found and lost again and again: and now under conditions
That seem unpropitious. But perhaps neither gain nor loss.
For us there is only the trying. The rest is not our business."
But Graham's words are more warm and, well, urgent.
I'm giving a copy of her words to all my calligraphy and art students.
Susan
Just happened to come across this line from Goethe which seems to echo Martha Graham's advice: "Destiny grants us our wishes, but in its own way, in order to give us something beyond our wishes."
SK
Perhaps Browning is relevant too? "A man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?" Di
Post a Comment
<< Home