Breathtaker Bella

Bella has made a speciality of the moment just before. She is extraordinarily good at finding it, holding you in it, and making the suspension itself into the experience. Her voice in English and Afrikaans both carries a light, confident quality — deceptively uncomplicated on the surface, technically brilliant underneath. She is a teasing and edging specialist who operates with metronomic precision, knowing exactly when to push and exactly when to withhold and exactly what the withholding is doing to you. She is also genuinely funny — which turns out, unexpectedly, to make everything more intense. Bella doesn't take your breath. She makes you give it.