“The body never lies.” This aphorism is taught to every student of Dance History 101. It comes from Martha Graham, who received it from her father, Dr. George Graham, a neurological physician.
“Martha, you must never lie to me, because movement never lies, and when I see your body I’ll know you are lying.”
Dr. Graham famously taught the choreographer, when she was a young girl, that the body is the ultimate repository of truth. Martha Graham adhered to the idea all her life. She famously passed it to acolytes. She steeped her art in it.
The men in the little white coats who descend a set of stairs at 35:19 — mincing, reluctant, hesitant, awkward — are preparing to lie. These men of science arrange themselves around Mr. Trump’s physician Dr. Sean Conley. Their foot-dragging, averted gazes, slumping shoulders and “I’m here but I don’t want to be” body language lends credence to Dr. Graham’s sage observation.
The president’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows at center below, on the same occasion signals a certain untruth. Americans! How did we come to this?
