Richard Move is the New York dancer and club performer who created the popular Martha @ Mother show that featured Move in drag as the larger-than-life modern dance pioneer Martha Graham. Move has worked with Deborah Harry, Isaac Mizrahi, Michael Baryshnikov and Amy Sedaris (in the film version of Strangers with Candy ). This Saturday, Move will perform Martha @ the JCCSF (the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco), where his guests will be local modern dance choreographer Margaret Jenkins, SF Ballet diva Muriel Maffre and performance artist Marc Bamuthi Joseph.
Joe Landini: What were your early years like?
Richard Move: My first dance classes were in high school in Fredericksburg, Virginia, America's Most Historic City. There was one dance school, and they did tap, baton and jazz, and they had a modern class. It turned out that the class was taught by a Martha Graham protege, and she was wonderful. Fredericksburg built a performing arts high school. I was in the drama program, and they encouraged us to take dance. By the time I got to college, I was most interested in dance-theatre.
When did you get to New York?
I started coming to New York in the 90s. At that time, I was interested in two things; experimental dance-theatre and the New York performance scene, and a lot of that was happening in the clubs. Now it's in a little bit of dry spell. At the time, it was still pretty great.
During that period, who inspired you?
I loved the club performers at the Pyramid Club. So that's what I set out to do, I wanted to be part of both the dance performance-art world and the club performance world. In 1992, we started Club Jackie 60, which kind of synthesized club and performance. Every week we did a great show. This was in the meatpacking district, the far West Village. We did these theme nights every fucking Tuesday, and I was in charge of a Dance Legends evening. At that time, I had my feet in both worlds, the dance world and the performance world. So I invited my dance friends to perform, and that was the first time I performed as Martha Graham.
Did you study at the Graham school?
Not really, I just had basic Graham training in college. I was never really interested in that company, it didn't seem right for me. My interest in her was as a character, as this great, eccentric woman, and artist, thinker and writer.
That was the beginning of my performance as La Graham. In the beginning, I was worried that no one would be interested and it was the opposite. Even if people had only a vague idea who Graham was, they immediately got that she was a diva, she's like what Maria Callas or Bette Davis must have been like. People could understand this iconic diva. That's when I decided to expand on the Martha show and make it a monthly show. I started the Martha @ Mother series and made my own kind of synoptic deconstructive versions of her epic ballets. It was also kind of a dance variety show, where Martha would invite other artists to do short works. By the end of the series, it was Mikhail Baryshnikov and Merce Cunningham. It was amazing.
In San Francisco, you'll present Martha @ the JCCSF. What kind of show will that be?
It's two things, it's spending an evening in the theatre with this great, grand dame. She's letting you into her world, the process and the role of the artist in the world, the creative impulse. She's simultaneously letting the audience into her psyche, and educating them about herself. They also get a feel for the dances she made. Katherine Crockett, a principal in the Martha Graham Dance Company, will perform. There's a satirical, humorous aspect; then there's a very serious, profound aspect. Then there's a nod to Graham's days in vaudeville. She was a big vaudeville star. We invite local dance talent to perform, and Martha puts their work in context from her point of view. She's sort of the mother of it, presiding over it all, she's the authority. So that's the evening.
Martha @ the JCCSF, March 31, 8 p.m., 3200 California St., SF. Tickets ($28): (415) 292-1233.