Have you ever been so moved by a performance that you just had to respond somehow? Maria Formolo is a dancer whose work I had the pleasure of seeing several times. Once she appeared as a great shaggy bird, reminiscent of a west-coast totem, and through the slightest quiver of a finger (let alone the movement of the whole body) conveyed beautifully the timorousness and grandeur of that creature. This was at a festival of which I was an organizer, sponsored by the Edmonton Composers' Concert Society.

    With very simple equipment, a DX7 synthesizer coupled to multiple tape recorders (I didn't have a multi-track machine then), I put together these expressive dances. They range from dramatic and haunting (1st movement), to a quiet motif in two voices that go in and out of phase with one another (2nd movement), to an impossibly frenetic and explosive finale.