Reggie Wilson and Andréya Ouamba Team Up at BAM, Tamar Rogoff Offers a Diagnosis of a Faun

A A A Comments By Deborah Jowitt Tuesday, Dec 15 2009

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Jack Vartoogian

"The Good Dance—Dakar/Brooklyn" by Reggie Wilson and Andréya Ouamba

Julie Lemberger

Gregg Mozgala in Tamar Rogoff’s "Diagnosis of a Faun"

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The Good Dance�Dakar/Brooklyn
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
December 16 through 19

Tamar Rogoff Performance Projects
La MaMa E.T.C.�The Ellen Stewart Theatre
December 3 through 20

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Before the fourth duet is over, the evening is beginning to seem long, but this encounter is full of lovely images. Baker is less a nymph for the Faun to seduce (although they do embrace and nuzzle each other on the ledge) than an interested fellow-dancer. She watches him, intrigued, and copies his moves. Side by side, they walk pigeon-toed, but she intrigues him too, and he stretches her leg into a lavish arabesque.

As Diagnosis of a Faunis winding down, Rogoff alludes again to Nijinsky’s ballet. While Baker relaxes on the ground, Mozgala brings a bark basket of rose petals and scatters them over her. When she rises, he lowers himself onto her flowery simulacrum in orgasmic delight. She leaves quietly. I can’t remember exactly when Dr. A. entered and reclined on the floor, his back against a rock, but he’s there when the Faun climbs back up to his resting place and lies down in the same pose. Dr. B., now in pointe shoes, bourrées smoothly across the stage and disappears. A recorded voice we’ve heard before says, “Paging Dr. B.!” And in an instant, Kollisch and Mozgala sit up and stare toward us, their identical poses stirring a memory of a Nijinsky photo. They look as if they’ve been awakened from a dream. As have we.

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