The Artist and the Dancer

The Artist and the Dancer
(Dedicated to the American movement artist, Gary Welton)
 
Alone, beneath a spotlight
centre-left of an empty stage,
she dances to the music
for an audience in her mind;
 
whilst, in the shadows of the wings,
a benign voyeur, possessed,
captures her flowing movements
in a brush-stroked pas-de-deux.
 
Each allonge and pirouette
keeps the artist in his trance,
as he renders to acrylic
complex rhythms of her dance;
 
until at last she falls exhausted,
and his pallet’s work is done;
to remain undisturbed upon an easel
for several years to come.
 
Decades later: a champagne reception
for a gallery’s opening night where,
from the shadows, an old man gazes
as a graceful lady stands and sighs
 
alone, beneath a spotlight,
at a figure centre-left of a canvas stage,
where she now dances for an audience
with music in their minds.

© Copyright 2017 Robert M Jaggs-Fowler