In a dancer, there is a reverence for such forgotten things as the miracle of the small beautiful bones and their delicate strength.

Graham frames dance as a kind of devotion to the body’s often-overlooked architecture. The “small beautiful bones” evoke the hidden, structural elements that make movement possible, while “delicate strength” captures the paradox dancers live with: fragility and power coexisting in the same physical instrument. By calling these things “forgotten,” she suggests modern life dulls our awareness of the body’s quiet miracles—its joints, balance, and endurance—until an art like dance restores reverence. The line also implies an ethic of attention: the dancer’s craft is not only performance but sustained respect for anatomy, discipline, and the intimate materials of human motion.