“Your dreams are too big for who and what you are. You aren’t pretty enough, smart enough, skinny enough…”
When you hear words like that, remember that you have super powers: your life force, your dream and your dedication to your dream.
When I was 10 they said that I was a troublemaker, a misfit, a body to be beaten, a spirit to be broken…they did not know who they were talking about!
Agnes de Mille, dancer, author, choreographer and close friend to renowned and beloved choreographer Martha Graham, was told by her parents that she wasn’t pretty enough to be an actress and that dance was not a career. Years later, after she achieved a Broadway success, she confessed to her friend Martha Graham that she had a burning desire for excellence but did not have faith that she could do it. Imagine that moment, they were sitting at a Schrafft’s soda fountain….Martha Graham said this to her friend Agnes:
“There is a vitality,
a life force,
a quickening
that is translated through you into action,
and because there is only one of you in all time,
this expression is unique.And If you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and be lost.
The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine
how good it is nor how valuable it is
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 open and aware directly to the urges that motivate YOU.Keep the channel open…
No artist is pleased…
There is no satisfaction whatever at anytime
There is only a queer, divine dissatisfaction
a blessed unrest that keeps us marching
and makes “us” MORE alive than the others.”
This grand inspiration left by Martha Graham and Agnes de Milles is performed by
beloved artists Meryl Streep and Yo-Yo Ma:
Rhana Pytell 