Welcome to The Golden Dance
Michèle Sharik
Handbell Solo Artist, Teacher, & Clinician
Composer,  Arranger & Publisher
Director of Handbells, Sunnyvale Presbyterian Church, Sunnyvale, CA
and Trinity Episcopal Church, Menlo Park, CA
Member of Sonos Handbell Ensemble & Sonos Quartet
Member of Bronzewood Pædeia harp and handbell duo
Clinician, Portable Bellfest

The Golden Dance

A solo ringer plans the golden dance
To liberate from brazen bells a song
With intricate glissades and fluid stance
And thus to weave the notes into a throng
Of close companions, joined without a seam,
So that the music falls like liquid sound,
As raindrops, merged, create a flowing stream,
Cascading through and over and around
An aural landscape; this, the ringer's stage
Whereon the company of notes perform
Ballet no longer captive on the page
But freed to enter souls and there to warm.

"The Golden Dance" sonnet is ©2002 Tamara L. Raetz.  Used by permission.

Photo:  Martin Reilly, 2004