Complex Female Characters

When Richard Move enters from stage left, his presence is already monumental. In a long-sleeved gown, a wig swept in a dramatic topknot, and his eyes lined in striking swoops, the artist presents himself in the likeness of Martha Graham—though standing at 6’4, he has more than a foot on the late modern dance pioneer.

Performance

“Martha@BAM: The 1963 Interview” by Richard Move

Place

Fisher Theater, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn, New York, October 30, 2025

Words

Rebecca Deczynki

Lisa Kron and Richard Move in “Martha@BAM: The 1963 Interview.” Photograph by Julen Esteban-Pretel

This is a role that Move has played since the ’90s, first with his “Martha@Mother” series, performed at New York City nightclub in 1996 (which earned him both a Bessie Award and a cease-and-desist from the Martha Graham Entities). In the nearly 30 years since then, Move has continued to portray the dance legend—even, eventually, with the Graham Company—with diligent attention to detail regarding both her work and her mannerisms. He debuted “Martha@... The 1963 Interview” in 2011 at Dance Theater Workshop (now New York Live Arts) and this year, just ahead of the Martha Graham Dance Company’s forthcoming 100-year anniversary in 2026, brought it to the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Move’s first appearance on the stage—alongside two dancers, Catherine Cabeen and PeiJu Chien-Pott, both former members of the Graham company—acts as an amuse-bouche for “Martha@BAM: The 1963 Interview.” The three performers move slowly, their arms and torsos held in Grahamian postures, as they slide their feet along the floor. In silence, they circle one another before exiting through the wings again.

“Martha@BAM: The 1963 Interview” is essentially a restaging of dance critic Walter Terry’s interview with Graham at the 92nd Street Y in 1963 for his “Dance Laboratory” series. In this production, playwright and actor Lisa Kron plays the role of Terry with joviality and wit. The comedy that runs throughout the show is a mix of ironic and intentional, as when Kron, in her first line, welcomes the BAM audience to the 92nd Street Y, a borough away. She then introduces Move, as Graham, to the stage, and they start their conversion.

Richard Move, Catherine Cabeen, and Lisa Kron in “Martha@BAM: The 1963 Interview.” Photograph by Steven Pisano

In 1963, the Graham Company was in its 37th year of existence and Graham herself 69. With decades of material to cover, Terry, in his interview, zeroed in on one particularly compelling feature of Graham’s work: her use of characters and specifically, complex female characters. It’s a smart way to find a central theme in Graham’s wide body of work. It also establishes a compelling theme for Move’s twenty-first-century reinvention of the more than 60-year old interview.

Through this hour-long performance—equal parts a play as it is a work of dance—Kron and Move, as their characters, discuss Graham’s approach to rendering figures like Medea, Clytemnestra, Phaedra, Jocasta, and the bride in “Appalachian Spring.” As Move explains the psyches of these characters, and how their psyches influence their movements, Cabeen and Chien-Pott emerge to portray, like visions, the works that are the subject at hand. Here, we see the way that Medea’s torso undulates and her knees, at times, quiver; how Clytemnestra reaches, pressing the heel of her hand forward. Both dancers are skilled technicians, but, more importantly, they execute Graham’s signature phrases with the intensity and commitment that they demand.

Cabeen and Chien-Pott perform these movements without musical accompaniment. In a way, their movement is the accompaniment to Kron and Move’s conversation—or vice versa. By their concentrated and controlled steps, in addition to the expression they bring to these famed characters, the dancers bring to life Graham’s legacy just as much as Move does in his depiction of the choreographer.

Catherine Cabeen, Lisa Kron, Richard Move, and PeiJu Chien-Pottn in “Martha@BAM: The 1963 Interview.” Photograph by Steven Pisano

Move’s acting, too, captures the ethos of Graham so strikingly that the performance has a documentarian appeal. While there is, of course, a layer of drag to this work, this is not done in jest. Move’s intention in his portrayal is one clearly defined by love and respect, and it is through his careful and considered artistic choices that he renders Graham as realistically as possible. His delivery of lines—in a poised, Mid-Atlantic accent—like, “I had not been to Greece before I did any of the Greek things,” and “think of yourself as dancing to our death,” garner laughs from the audience because they fall so perfectly in line with the regal, somewhat otherworldly figure of Graham.

Move’s performance centers on his dialogue with Kron, though near the end of their talk, he gets up from his chair, as if pulled into a reverie after describing the way Graham’s grandmother inspired “Appalachian Spring.” With Cabeen and Chien-Pott simultaneously performing, Move carries out a few phrases of movement. He moves across the stage slowly and deliberately, repeating placements of the arms.

Here, it’s easy to see what it might have been like to witness the real Graham, just a short while before her 70th birthday, well retired from the stage but still every bit the dancer. When Move takes his seat again, it’s like waking up from a quick dream. In Move’s hands, her vision and her legacy endures, revived in earnest for a new generation that watched with pleasure, rapt.

Rebecca Deczynski

Rebecca Deczynski is a New York City-based writer and editor publishes the newsletter Mezzanine Society. Her work has appeared in publications including Inc., Domino, NYLON, and InStyle. She graduated from Barnard College cum laude with a degree in English and a minor in dance.

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