REVIEW

Michaella's performance with Jamie Walton at the Muse at 269, Portobello Road, London W11 on 5 July 2005.

She was a butterfly that emerged from her chrysalis. Her costume, purple and gold, resonated with the art that surrounded her. Enveloped in a purple silk robe, she began, crouching before the cellist in silent reverence. The deep resonant tones of Bach's second suite breathed life into her recumbent figure. Gradually she arose, turning sinuously, sensuously as the music animated her entire body.

His eyes closed, the cellist's features expressed the sublime intensity of the music. Equally passionate, the dancer had become the physical embodiment of the music. The flow of the movement was so soft, so graceful, that it had become dreamlike, unearthly; her creation was a profoundly spiritual experience, and the audience understood. But more, because no longer was she simply the expression of the cellist's will; she'd begun a dialogue, sending subtle signals back to him with her body which caused him to improvise, adding arabesques to the classical sonorities.

The artist watched oblivious to his guests. The cellist seamlessly segued into Ravel's Kaddish, and at last into Cassado's dance suite, exciting her into a fiery, whirling, flowing, unbearably hypnotic finale. The exotic butterfly folded her purple wings and fell tenderly to earth, her passion spent.

By Stephen Barber, who exhibited his works at the private view.