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.
Well, in the '80s and '70s, with the exception of Sidney Poitier and Brock Peters, maybe Ivan Dixon, if you were as big and black as I am, you were a bad guy. Simple. Because in real life, I scare people.
Architecture is not based on concrete and steel, and the elements of the soil. It's based on wonder.
Painting is the representation of visible forms. The essence of realism is its negation of the ideal.
I remember the Chillicothe ballplayers grappling the Long Island ball players in a sixteen-inning game ended by darkness. And the shoulders of the Chillicothe players were a red smoke against the sundown and the shoulders of the Rock Island players were a yellow smoke against the sundown. And the umpire's voice was hoarse calling balls and strikes and outs and the umpire's throat fought in the dust for a song.
I am against the line and all its consequences: contours, forms, composition. All paintings of whatever sort, figurative or abstract, seem to me like prison windows in which the lines, precisely are the bars.
I think that when we look at something that's well acted and a story that's well told, it allows us to be a mirror of who we are as human beings and as a culture, and offers a glimpse of where we're headed.
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