Apple

The wind blew past me to rustle the leaves next to me. I swayed gently to the music that was created. Pure air was all that was between the ground and I. I had grown up quickly in the spring air. I could feel my stem that tied me home begin to give way. I was ready to be free, to begin the adventure that would be my life. Creaking, I eased my way free. Falling to the ground, I left my family tree. One day I would create my own family and be a tree of power. The wind took me to a place father than I had expected to go. I began to be frightened. Things were disappointingly uneventful, and already my red skin was turning an awful brown color. I had all but given up when a small boy and girl came upon me. The boy had been leaving bread crumbs, and they had no food. I was picked up and carressed gently. I was split and eaten. The conscious part of me was left behind, and as the children moved on, I was forgotten. Left in the earth to die, unburied, unable to continue to my next adventure.

Hold fast to dreams for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly

Wings flapping, the dream was soaring high as the strongest eagle, powerful as the scariest hawk. It soared faster than the Peregrin Falcon, was airborne longer than the Sooty Tern and saw more than the Woodcock. Years upon years the dream soared in the sky, touching lives, displaying its greatness. In one instant however, one person's invention, anothers carelessness, the dream died. How could it not, when 4000 pounds of steel was thrust into its center? The invincible dream was broken. No air creature can fly broken-winged. The world weeped, peace was broken, and chaos wrought the lovers of that dream. Who knows when another dream hero will arise. Possibly never. Certainly none greater than the now dead dream of millions.

Sight

Walking down the stairs with my hand on the rail, I felt all self conciousness leave. Whether there was someone else watching, I would never know, nor did I care. Staring blankly into the room that was as empty as the picture behind my eyelids. I walked the length of the room in a zig zag, using my slippered feet to make sure nothing was ready to jump out and bar my way. For this, I needed all the physical freedom the floor could give me. I felt for the play button on the little boom box in the far corner, and turned my favorite music on. Kurt Bestor's score of "The Secret Garden" flowed onto the air, and began to move my feet. Images filled my mind, finally coloring the blank blackness I had harbored for so long. The curtain went up, the stage lights flooded my senses, along with cheers from the audience that was now before me. Dancing, I could see again. When the music ended, and everything was silent, the audience's applause faded, and the darkness crept back to steal my sight and happiness, until I could once again dance, and see.

I am a Dancer

I am a Dancer

By Martha Graham
(from marthagraham.org)
 
I am a dancer. I believe that we learn by practice. Whether it means to learn to dance by practicing dancing or to learn to live by practicing living, the principles are the same. In each it is the performance of a dedicated precise set of acts, physical or intellectual, from which comes shape of achievement, a sense of one's being, a satisfaction of spirit. One becomes in some area an athlete of God.

To practice means to perform, in the face of all obstacles, some act of vision, of faith, of desire. Practice is a means of inviting the perfection desired.

I think the reason dance has held such an ageless magic for the world is that it has been the symbol of the performance of living. Even as I write, time has begun to make today yesterday-the past. The most brilliant scientific discoveries will in time change and perhaps grow obsolete, as new scientific manifestations emerge. But art is eternal, for it reveals the inner landscape, which is the soul of man.

Many times I hear the phrase "the dance of life." It is an expression that touches me deeply, for the instrument through which the dance speaks is also the instrument through which life is lived-the human body. It is the instrument by which all the primaries of life are made manifest. It holds in its memory all matters of life and death and love. Dancing appears glamorous, easy, delightful. But the path to the paradise of the achievement is not easier than any other. There is fatigue so great that the body cries, even in its sleep. There are times of complete frustration, there are daily small deaths. Then I need all the comfort that practice has stored in my memory, a tenacity of faith.

It takes about ten years to make a mature dancer. The training is twofold. First comes the study and practice of the craft which is the school where you are working in order to strengthen the muscular structure of the body. The body is shaped, disciplined, honored, and in time, trusted. The movement becomes clean, precise, eloquent, truthful. Movement never lies. It is a barometer telling the state of the soul's weather to all who can read it. This might be called the law of the dancer's life-the law which governs its outer aspects.

Then comes the cultivation of the being from which whatever you have to say comes. It doesn't just come out of nowhere, it comes out of a great curiosity. The main thing, of course, always is the fact that there is only one of you in the world, just one, and if that is not fulfilled then something has been lost. Ambition is not enough; necessity is everything. It is through this that the legends of the soul's journey are retold with all their tragedy and their bitterness and sweetness of living. It is at this point that the weep of life catches up with the mere personality of the performer, and while the individual becomes greater, the personal becomes less personal. And there is grace. I mean the grace resulting from faith — faith in life, in love, in people, in the act of dancing. All this is necessary to any performance in life which is magnetic, powerful, rich in meaning.

In a dancer, there is a reverence for such forgotten things as the miracle of the small beautiful bones and their delicate strength. In a thinker, there is a reverence for the beauty of the alert and directed and lucid mind. In all of us who perform there is an awareness of the smile which is part of the equipment, or gift, of the acrobat.

We have all walked the high wire of circumstance at times. We recognize the gravity pull of the earth as he does. The smile is there because he is practicing living at that instant of danger. He does not choose to fall. At times I fear walking that tightrope. I fear the venture into the unknown. But that is part of the act of creating and the act of performing. That is what a dancer does.

Just some favorite quotes of mine. Feel free to comment and leave your own

"Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced." - Soren Kierkegaard

“Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it.” ~Terry Prachett

"I'm the kind of girl who, when the world is falling apart around me, I can pull out a deck of cards and play." Tessa Parkinson

Do not live your life with full of WHAT IF's. rather, live your life with full of WHY NOT's

When words fail, Action speaks. When Action fails, Eyes speak. When Eyes fail, Tears speak. And when everything else fails, Silence speaks.

Enthusiasm is excitement with inspiration, motivation, and a pinch of creativity. 

"...It's like there's a part of you that thinks if you give people a cause not to like you, then when they don't, it's okay because you were the one who decided they weren't allowed to like you anyway." Sherillyn Kenyon

"People who are rather more than six feet tall and nearly as broad across the shoulders often have uneventful journeys. People jump out at them from behind rocks then say things like, "Oh. Sorry. I thought you were someone else." Terry Pratchett

To dance is to be out of yourself. Larger, more beautiful, more powerful. This is power, it is glory on earth and it is yours for the taking.
-Agnes De Mille-


When I miss class for one day, I know it.n When I miss class for two days, my teacher knows it. When I miss class for three days, the audience knows it.
-Rudolf Nureyev-


A dancer, more than any other human being, dies two deaths: the first, the physical when the powerfully trained body will no longer respond as you would wish.
-Martha Graham-


There are three steps you have to complete to become a professional dancer: learn to dance, learn to perform and learn how to cope with injuries.
-D. Gere-


Dancers are a great breed of people. And they really want to dance so you don't have to beg them to work. However, dancers sometimes build walls around themselves because they are presenting themselves all the time: dancing is very much a confession.
-Suzanne Farrell-


I think most dancers would agree that the art of ballet chooses the dancer, not the other way around.
-Kevin McKenzie-


Just remember when you're not practicing that someone somewhere is and when you meet them, they will win.
-Jaques d'Amboise


I set as my goal to be the best dancer I could be. Not the most famous, or the highest paid dancer, just the best I could be. Out of this discipline came great freedom and calm.
-Suzanne Farrell-


A toe shoe is an eccentric as the ballerina who wears it: their marriage is a commitment.
-Toni Bentley-


Ballet technique is arbitrary and very difficult. It never becomes easy; it becomes possible.
-Agnes De Mille-


If I could tell you what it meant, there would be no point dancing it.
-Isadora Duncan-


The teacher doesn't teach, not really. The teacher offers stimulation and ways in which the person can educate himself or herself. At best the teacher wakes up that person and makes a person hungry.
-Murray Louis-


Seen from the wings, a ballerina's life is made-up of sheer physical misery relieved only by the euphoria of performance. Physical agony is a normal thing backstage and arouses the awe and pity only of outsiders unused to its sight.
-Anonymous-

"If you realized how powerful your thoughts are, you would never think a negative thought." Peace Pilgrim

 We are here to add what we can to life, not to get what we can from it. - William Osler

"The whole secret of existence is to have no fear. Never fear what will become of you, depend on no one. Only the moment you reject all help you are freed." Buddha

 Even if you are on the right track, you will get run over if you just sit there. -Will Rogers

"Imperfection is beauty. Madness is genius and it is better to be absolutely ridiculous then absolutly boring." Marilyn Monroe