Keeping the Channel Open

Perspectives from The Artist's Road

The Spanish Dancer 1888 Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

“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.” - Martha Graham

(This I Believe, Vol. 2, 1952; and The Routledge Dance Studies Reader, 1998, by Alexandra Carter and Janet O’Shea)

Martha Graham (1894-1991), the American modern dancer and choreographer, wrote beautifully about the art of dance. Her words have inspired artists in all creative genres. We find them essential to revisit, particularly at those times of isolation or self-doubt.

She wrote: “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 yo…