CRASHarts presents

This article appeared in the Feb. 5, 2003 Cambridge Chronicle.

Richard Move’s Martha@

at Sanders Theater this Saturday

by Susie Davidson

CORRESPONDENT

In over 180 works spanning a 50-year career, the legendary choreographer and 20th-century icon Martha Graham pioneered an innovative technique that conveyed elemental emotions through highly stylistic and profound body movement Following her death in 1991 at the age of 96, Graham has been revered as the central figure in the modern dance movement. This Saturday evening at 8 p.m. at Sanders Theatre, choreographer, dancer, director and performance artist Richard Move will, in a series of monologues laced with innovative versions of Graham's classic dances, re-create her persona in the Boston premiere of his series Martha@.

The show, begun in 1996, has twice won the New York Dance and Performance Award known as Bessie, and was featured on the BBC World News Program Arts Express, MetroArts 13 and the PBS Television Program City Arts - The Best of Dance. He has performed it at the Salzburg Festival, Tanzfest/Berlin and the Kennedy Center. Each show features a video production by filmmaker and dance videographer Charles Atlas as well as new and venerable artists who perform their own works; past guests have included Mikhail Baryshnikov, Merce Cunningham, Murray Louis, Meredith Monk, Mark Morris and Yvonne Rainer.

“Move, in a humorous and deadly accurate impersonation, simultaneously satirizes and honors a bigger-than-life Graham, said World Music marketing representative Mary Curtin. “Blending camp with reverence, he lovingly ‘drags’ Martha back from the hereafter.”

Move began his tributes after seeing A Dancer’s World, a 1957 documentary on Graham. “I was just turned on by this woman, who seemed like she was from another planet." As independent-minded offstage as well as on, he explained, “she declined an invitation to dance at Constitution Hall after black singer Marian Anderson had been denied a recital there,” he said. “She refused to tour in Hitler's Germany.” Graham was awarded the National Medal of Freedom and the Kennedy Center Honors, and was the first dancer to perform at the White House.

Move’s credits include theatrical and dance installations for the Guggenheim Museum and the Vogue Fashion Awards. His choreography has appeared in Mikhail Baryshnikov's White Oak Dance Project and the New York City Ballet, and he has collaborated with Merce Cunningham, Yvonne Rainer, the Karole Armitage Ballet, DANCENOISE, Mark Dendy Dance and Theater and Pooh Kaye/Eccentric Motions. Move has also appeared in several independent films and in many international nightclubs; he also co-founded the cabaret show Jackie 60. He recently directed and staged the 2002 World Tour for the band Blondie, whose singer, Deborah Harry, starred with former indie rock band Bongwater vocalist Ann Magnuson, along with designer Isaac Mizrahi and dancer Mark Morris in Ghost Light, a film based on Graham which he directed with her longtime producer Christopher Herrmann.

“At Sanders, the film will be showing throughout the live show,” said Curtin.

The show will feature dancer Katherine Crockett, music by Aaron Copland, Bernard Herrmann and Serge Rachmaninoff, set design by Christopher Boyd, Atals’ vieo and technical direction by Donalee Katz. Crockett, who was a principal dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company, has led performances of many Graham classics such as Appalachian Spring Acts of Light, Diversion of Angels, Cave of the Heart, Herodiade, Dark Meadow and Clytemnestra as well as the solos Frontier and Lamentation. Director, choreographer, designer and performer Boyd has designed props for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and The Nightingale, as well as for his own theatre company's The Bremen Town Musicians, Beauty and the Beast, Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde, The Snow Queen, and the Steadfast Tin Soldier. He designed and directed 1999’s Number the Stars, which premiered at the Elaine Kaufman Cultural Center.

Designer and production/company manager Katz, currently an Artist’s Manager at Gardner Arts Network, has worked at the Lisa Giobbi Movement Theatre, True Confessions of a GO-GO Girl and Daniel Ezralow &, An evening of Solos and Duets. She has been the Operations Manager for the Paul Taylor Dance Company, the company manager for Dance Theatre of Harlem, technical director and lighting designer for the Urban Bush Women, and designer and company manager with the Moscow Balalaikas, The Malinki Star Circus and Druzba Soviet Dancers.

All cast members join in to enthusiastically present this ode to a trailblazing maverick of the stage.

"There is part of me that feels like I'm just a working-stiff actor doing a character,” commented Move. “And there's another part of me that feels Graham was the divine normal and the acrobat of God, that she was some kind of vessel - the oracle."

World Music/CrashArts presents Richard Move in the Boston premiere of Martha@Sanders on Saturday, February 8, 8 p.m. at Sanders Theatre, 45 Quincy St. Tickets are $30 and $22 and are available at the Harvard Box Office, located in the Holyoke Arcade, Harvard Square. For information or to charge tickets, call 617-876-4275 or the Harvard Box Office at 617-496-2222.

World Music is funded in part by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency which also receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts.

--re: Katherine Crockett who will stand in for Martha Graham's "Company" at the Sanders show: check out http://www.marthagrahamdance.org/danceco.htm and http://www.npr.org/display_pages/features/feature_925447.html. She's been affiliated with the actual Martha Graham Dance Company and does solo performances of Martha Graham's Lamentation in various venues. In other words, she's no slouch. --re: some Move quotes: these are taken from the Press Kit and are pulled from different sources:

"As Move points out in one of his many monologues, Graham, who died a decade ago, was a forceful personality offstage as well. She declined an invitation to dance at Constitution Hall after black singer Marian Anderson had been denied a recital there. She refused to tour in Hitler's Germany. Washington honored her many times: She was awarded the National Medal of Freedom and the Kennedy Center Honors, and she was the first dancer to perform at the White House.
But she was not always appreciated here. Move relates with pride how Graham's ballet "Phaedra" was denounced by Congress as "lewd"." (taken from a Washington Post article, 2001) * [Move on seeing a 1957 documentary movie, "A Dancer's World," on Martha Graham while taking a college dance history class]:"I was just turned on by this woman who seemed like she was from another planet." [He was fascinated with Graham's extreme model of womanhood, compelling him to glue on a pair of false eyelashes, trowel on the lipstick and channel her persona in clubs and concert halls across two continents.]

"The film was like something out of 'Star Trek.'" [In the film, Graham's dancers, who were also tightly coiffed, angular and tense, looked to him] "like aliens, so weird and otherworldly and surreal. All I can say is I loved it, I was excited by it.....And I was not understanding it a bit. Graham was kind of talking in circles. In my research, I realized she was drunk, and that film almost didn't happen. ... She wouldn't read from a script, so they just set up in her dressing room and let the cameras roll, and at the end of it, she's literally-----riveting." *Another Move quote:

"Martha had such an attitude about men. She saw woman as the center of the universe, and men were just two-dimensional sex objects. And I heighten that and exaggerate that...The men were basically props for her---which is hysterical! So, it's a humorous element of the show, but like every element, it's based on historical accuracy." *[Like many of Graham's devotees, Move avows a connection to her that verges on the metaphysical]: "There is part of me that feels like I'm just a working-stiff actor doing a character, and there's another part of me that feels she was the divine normal and the acrobat of God. That she was some kind of vessel----the oracle."

Hope all this helps. I'll be sending Rob images today. Thanks, Mary

* Sanders TECH. CREDITS

(NOTE: I do not include titles, etc. of my pieces in the program, but rather 'Martha' introduces them from stage. )

Richard Move recently created an acclaimed theatrical dance work for Mikhail Baryshnikov and the White Oak Dance Project. He will appear on Role Reversal, a television program which premieres this March on A&E. Upcoming projects include staging the Blondie World Tour and choreographing an Elton John music video. He also created the solo Lust for New York City Ballet principal Helene Alexopolous, and choreographed Dame Shirley Bassey1s Diamonds are Forever performance at the Cannes Film Festival. He directed LES MIZrahi, a one-man show performed by famed fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi and is also producing and directing the notorious professional wrestler, The Iron Sheik, in his one man show, which previewed at Carolines in NYC. He has performed with such legends as Merce Cunningham and Yvonne Rainerand has toured internationally with the Karole Armitage Ballet, Dendy Dance and DANCENOISE, among other companies. His own dance and theater works have been presented at such venues as the American Festival in Paris, Dance Theater Workshop and La Mamma in New York City, and in the repertory of the Opera Ballet/Teatro Communale of Florence, Italy.

In 1996 he and independent producer Janet Stapleton created Martha @ .., which received two New York Dance and Performance Awards (a.k.a. Bessies). Martha @ ... was featured on the BBC World News Program Arts Express , MetroArts 13, and the PBS Television Program City Arts-The Best of Dance, which received a 2000 Emmy Award for Outstanding Fine Arts Program. In addition to New York City appearances, Move has performed as 'La Graham' around the world at such venues as the Jacobs Pillow Festival, Central Park /SummerStage, Salzburg Festival, Holland Dance Festival, Tanzfest /Berlin, Dance Umbrella/ London and the Centre National de la Danse in Paris. Upcoming performances include those in Frankfurt and Rome, among many. Move appeared as 'Martha' in a staged reading of TWEED Theatre Works' Caged along with Lorna Luft, Lily Tomlin, Isabella Rosellini and Joan Rivers.

Move recently completed production on a feature film of the life and work of Martha Graham under the direction of her long-time associate and filmmaker/ producer Christopher Herrmann. The film, entitled Ghost Light , was first screened at the Angelika Film Center, a featured presentation of the Independent Feature Film Market. Ghost Light also stars Ann Magnuson, with Deborah Harry, Isaac Mizrahi and Mark Morris and will be shown at festivals later this year. Move appears in several Indie films (as other characters), including Circle's Short Circuit, a film by Caspar Stracke and portrays the renegade choreographer/filmmaker Yvonne Rainer, in a documentary video installation of her life and work, by Charles Atlas.

Move has also performed in nightclubs throughout the world and is co-founder of the legendary and long-running late-nite cabaret Jackie 60, producing, directing and/or appearing in countless performances, including the annual Christmas extravaganza.

Move appears in several Indie films (as other characters), including Circle's Short Circuit, a film by Caspar Stracke and portrays the renegade choreographer/filmmaker Yvonne Rainer, in a documentary video installation of her life and work, by Charles Atlas

Move also creates theatrical installations for numerous special events, including the Guggenheim Museum, honoring the painter Francesco Clemente, as well as events for Veuve Clicqout, New York Academy of Art's Tribeca Ball and the VH1/Vogue Fashion Awards . He is represented by World Arts Inc. Visit www.move-itproductions.com

.. (formerly Martha @ Mother, now Martha @ Town Hall) began in the fall of 1996. This two-time winning and acclaimed event was established as an alternative dance/theater series.

The event is designed to pay special tribute to the legendary Grande Dame of the Dance, Martha Graham, while simultaneously presenting a wide range of artistic talent. Richard Move as the quintessential Diva Martha, hosts each evening, presenting loving and satiric restagings of Graham's epic ballets and delivering monologues as La Graham.

CRASHarts presents RICHARD MOVE Performing the Boston Premiere of MARTHA@SANDERS Saturday, February 8, 8pm, Sanders Theatre

Hilarious, technically perfect impersonation. Vogue A drag homage that soars! Washington Post Sophisticated, dead on, letter perfect parody. Village Voice

KATHERINE CROCKETT began her dance training with Ballet Metropolitan in Columbus, Ohio. She attended SUNY Purchase before receiving a full scholarship to the Martha Graham School. In 1993 she joined the Martha Graham Dance Company and become a Principal dancer in 1996. She has performed lead roles worldwide in such Graham classics as Appalachian Spring Acts of Light, Diversion of Angels, Cave of the Heart, Herodiade, Dark Meadow and Clytemnestra as well as Ms. Graham's signature solos, Frontier and Lamentation. She was interviewed and filmed performing Lamentation for the BBC's broadcast of highlights of the Edinburgh Festival(Scotland), and invited by Vanessa Redgrave to perform this same solo in Kosovo as a guest artist for the Return Festival. In 1998 Tony Award winning Broadway choreographer Susan Stroman featured her as the soloist in her peice But Not For Me. Ms. Crockett has also had works created on her by Robert Wilson, Lucinda Childs and has danced as a guest artist with Complexions (Dwight Rhoden and Desmond Richardson directors)She performed with Richard Move in Martha @ Mother and is excited to be joining the company in this new season.

Charles Atlas has completed more than 80 film and video works. From 1974 to 1983, he collaborated with Merce Cunningham, making pieces combining dance with film and video. He has worked extensively in American and European television on films ranging from a documentary on the New York music scene, to a live broadcast dealing with the AIDS crisis. His most recent film, Merce Cunningham: A Lifetime of Dance won best documentary award at Dance Screen in Monaco. Mr Atlas has created several large scale, mixed media installations, including The Hanged One, at the Whitney Museum of American Art and others at XL Xavier La Boulbenne (NY), The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, The Kitchen (NY) and Magazin 4 (Austria). Mr. Atlas has worked on live performances as Director and as designer of sets, costumes and lights and recently created video sequences for the White Oak Dance Project's Past Forward. Mr. Atlas has received three 'Bessies' (New York Dance and Performance Awards), the most recent in 1998, in recognition of video collages he made for the monthly event Martha @ Mother. He has been designing lighting for Michael Clark since 1984 and is currently completing the film The Legend of Leigh Bowery.

Christopher Boyd has been working in every aspect of theatre for the past 14 years. He has directed, choreographed, designed or performed in dozens of dance and theatre productions across the country. Some of his designs include specialty prop design for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Zilliker Hillside Theatr), costume design for The Nightingale (Zachary Scott Theatree Center) and costume and prop design for his own theatre company's productions of The Bremen Town Musicians, Beauty and the Beast, Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde, The Snow Queen, and the Steadfast Tin Soldier. He recently designed for an original musical production that he also directed, Number the Stars, which premiered at the Elaine Kaufman Cultural Center in January 1999.

Donalee Katz (Martha @... Technical Director) has worked as a designer and production /company manager for modern dance companies and theatrical productions. Some favorites include: Lisa Giobbi Movement Theatre, 'True Confessions of a GO-GO Girl' and Daniel Ezralow &.... An evening of Solos and Duets. Donalee is currently an Artist's Manager at Gardner Arts Network. Most recently she was Operations Manager for the Paul Taylor Dance Company. She was the company manager for Dance Theatre of Harlem and designed the lighting for DTH's 'Crossing Over', which premiered at the Kennedy Center Opera House. She has also toured with the Urban Bush Women as their Technical Director and Lighting designer. In addition, she has toured for Columbia Artists as a designer and company Manager with the Moscow Balalaikas, The Malinki Star Circus and Druzba Soviet Dancers.

Pilar Limosner's costume design credits include the ongoing Martha @... series,Images for David Parsons at the Joyce Theater, Karole Armitage's Le Stances A Sophie at the Joyce, I Had a Dream for the Ballet de Monte Carlo, The Dog is Us for the Deutsch Opera, Scheherezade for Maggio Danza di Firenze, Predator's Ball at BAM and Schrodingers Cat for the Ballet de Lorraine. Her other theater works include Eric Bogosian's Talk Radio and Ann Magnuson's You Could Be Home Now, both at the Public Theatre. She is currently working on At Jennie Ritchee for Ridge Street Theatre at the MCA in Chicago. Ms. Limosner has also designed for feature films and for television, including The Yards, Martha's World and Down To You.

Richard Move

Tel/Fax: (212) 647-7114

Cell: (646) 250-7114

http://www.move-itproductions.com

Richard Move/Martha @ ... Worldwide representation and management by:

World Arts Inc.

William Bish, Vice President

1775 Broadway, Suite 533 New York, NY 10019 General: 212-496-1730 Direct Line: 646-485-1860 Fax: 212-724-1440

e-mail: wbish@worldartsinc.com

www.worldartsinc.com

Mary Curtin Interim Marketing Assistant World Music/CRASHarts 720 Massachusetts Ave Cambridge, MA 02139 617-876-4275, x15 fax: 617-876-9170 email: mary@worldmusic.org www.WorldMusic.org

Mary Curtin

Interim Marketing Assistant

World Music/CRASHarts

720 Massachusetts Ave

Cambridge, MA 02139

617-876-4275, x15

fax: 617-876-9170

email: mary@worldmusic.org

www.WorldMusic.org

MARTHA @ ... PROGRAM COPY

Martha @ The Sanders

This event is in no way connected to or sponsored by the 'Martha Graham

Entities'.

divinenormal@earthlink.net. His other contact info.: Tel/Fax: (212) 647-7114; Cell: (646) 250-7114. Also his website: http://www.move-itproductions.com.

In Martha@Sanders, choreographer, director, dancer and performance artist Richard Move creates a humorous and deadly accurate impersonation of the legendary choreographer and 20th-century icon Martha Graham. He simultaneously satirizes and honors a bigger-than-life Graham and more. Blending camp with reverence, Move lovingly drags Martha back from the hereafter.

Move and independent producer Janet Stapleton established the Martha@? cabaret series in 1996, a series inspired by Graham herself, by the artists of the Cabaret Voltaire and by American vaudeville. Fortified with the disclaimer this event is in no way connected to or sponsored by The Martha Graham Entities, Martha@Mother was launched at Mother, a club in New York City's Meatpacking District. The show, relying mostly on word of mouth, was then propelled into being one of the hottest tickets in town. By the time the series was forced to move to Town Hall in 2001, Martha@? had received two New York Dance and Performance Awards (a.k.a. Bessies) and was featured on the BBC World News Program Arts Express, MetroArts 13 and the PBS Television Program City Arts-- -The Best of Dance. Touring his Martha@? events to such venues as the Salzburg Festival, Tanzfest/Berlin and the Kennedy Center, Move professes that Martha has renewed my faith that art is communicative and transformative. That sounds like a Martha quote! I can't separate us, I guess.

Richard Move has choreographed work for Mikhail Baryshnikov's White Oak Dance Project and the New York City Ballet and has choreographed, directed and appeared in fashion shows and music videos. He has performed with such legends as Merce Cunningham and Yvonne Rainer and has toured inter-nationally with the Karole Armitage Ballet, DANCENOISE, Mark Dendy Dance and Theater, and Pooh Kaye/Eccentric Motions, among other companies. Move has created theatrical and dance installations for numerous special events, including the Guggenheim Museum and the Vogue Fashion Awards. He has also directed a film based on Graham's life and work entitled Martha's World, which stars Ann Magnuson with Deborah Harry, Isaac Mizrahi and Mark Morris. Recently, he directed and staged the band Blondie's 2002 World Tour. World Music is funded in part by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency which also receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts.

* Sanders TECH. CREDITS

(NOTE: I do not include titles, etc. of my pieces in the program, but rather 'Martha' introduces them from stage. )

This evening's program is based on material created for the series Martha @... Produced by Richard Move, in partnership with independent producer and projects coordinator Janet Stapleton,

Richard Move as Martha with Katherine Crockett as her Company

Choreography and text performed by 'Martha' and the 'Company', staged and

written by Richard Move

Music: Aaron Copland, Bernard Herrmann and Serge Rachmaninoff

Company Couturier: Pilar Limosner

Set, Prop and Sound Design: Christopher Boyd

Video by Charles Atlas and Curious Pictures

Technical Director: Donalee Katz

.. (formerly Martha @ Mother, now Martha @ Town Hall) began in the fall of 1996. This two-time winning and acclaimed event was established as an alternative dance/theater series.

CRASHarts presents RICHARD MOVE Performing the Boston Premiere of MARTHA@SANDERS Saturday, February 8, 8pm, Sanders Theatre

Hilarious, technically perfect impersonation. Vogue A drag homage that soars! Washington Post Sophisticated, dead on, letter perfect parody. Village Voice

BOSTON, MA -- World Music/CrashArts presents Richard Move performing in the Boston premiere of Martha@Sanders on Saturday, February 8, 8pm at Sanders Theatre, 45 Quincy Street, Cambridge. Tickets are $30 and $22 and are available at the Harvard Box Office, located in the Holyoke Arcade, Harvard Square. To charge tickets call World Music (617) 876-4275 or the Harvard Box Office (617) 496-2222. For information call World Music (617) 876-4275.