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The Department of Dance at The Ohio State University hosted a masterclass with Tamar Rogoff and Gregg Mozgala on Wednesday April 2nd, 2014 in collaboration with The Humanities Institute, Film Studies, Disability Studies and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion. Below excerpt from a letter by a workshop participant Theo Ressa speaks to his profound experience in this class. He is also featured in the below video clip that explores Tamar’s body scripting improvisational approach.
 


It was good joining the Dancing Class and listening to Tamar and Gregg lecture. Their dialogue, demonstration, and engagement with dancing helped me see what I have heard but never experienced. This was my first time participating in such an event and I found it thrilling, inspiring, and encouraging; to be a part of the event was like a self-discovery moment. Yes I discovered that, with guidance, I can dance. When I wheeled in, I wondered what would transpire in the class. It didn’t cross my mind that it would be a moment of participation, critical evaluation of self, creativity, collaboration, etc. Today I felt good after the exercises which not only involved turning, twisting, stretching, and bending, but also included leading other members, negotiating with them what works for me and what works for them…It was all accommodation and self-discovery.

I am glad I came.
 
Sincerely,
Theo Ressa



 

 
In 2009, I saw Tamar Rogoff’s “Diagnosis of a Faun” on stage and was enthralled by this decidedly postmodern dance theater work that alluded to Vaslav Nijinsky’s 1913 tradition-shattering “L’Après Midi d’un Faune”. I am equally fascinated by her new film, “Enter the Faun”, that explores how Rogoff’s wise and patient guidance turned the young actor Gregg Mozgala into the lonely, lustful, goat-legged creature of that piece and achieved something even more lasting.

Mozgala, coping with cerebral palsy since birth, inspired Rogoff’s choreography, but—as the beautifully produced film focuses vividly on the collaborators’ memories, conversations, and therapeutic preparations— we see how Rogoff’s sensitive, intimate way of working with Mozgala gradually changes the way he senses, aligns, and uses his body. The process is not only revelatory but profoundly moving. This man has walked through life without his heels touching the floor; we watch while he sets his whole foot on that surface for the first time. “My feet,” he later says, “are going to take over the world.” Amazing.

– Deborah Jowitt, Dance Critic and Historian
 

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