Los Angeles (CNN) — After six days of testimony about Michael Jackson’s death, jurors heard about the pop icon’s creativity Wednesday.
“Michael’s imagination was endless,” dancer-choreographer Alif Sankey testified. “He would visualize it, and it happened. It was amazing.”
Sankey, the fifth witness called in the wrongful death lawsuit against concert promoter AEG Live, also testified about Jackson’s missed rehearsals and frail health during his last days as he prepared for his comeback concerts.
Spectators in the small Los Angeles courtroom Wednesday morning included Judge Lance Ito, famous for presiding over the O.J. Simpson murder trial in 1995. Ito was there to watch his friend, Judge Yvette Palazuelos, preside over this trial and then go to lunch with her.
Katherine Jackson dabbed tears from her eyes as her son’s “Smooth Criminal” video was played in court.
Sankey first met Michael Jackson when she was a dancer in the 1987 video production.
“We got to see Michael’s imagination come to life,” Sankey said. “That was my first time as a dancer, as an artist, that I was completely inspired by his craft and inspired by his attention to every detail. He was so detailed and he never missed a thing.”
Working with Jackson was “magical,” she said.
“I dream still to this day that I will be able to create on that level of magic that Michael created,” Sankey said. “It was like living a dream of working with an artist like that, and I will treasure it and have it in my memory forever.”
Sankey’s work as an associate producer and dancer for Jackson’s “This Is It” tour put her on the witness list in this trial.
“He shared with me that he was excited to do the show,” she said. “He was excited to show his kids, finally to show them who he was, what he was all about; he was very excited about that.”
Jurors heard about Jackson’s relationship with his three children and their love of their father. Sankey described how they would come with their father to the set each day in early June when he was filming video elements for the show.
“Paris had a purse, and inside her purse, she had all this candy in her purse she didn’t want her daddy to know about,” Sankey said. “She had these little pictures of her father in her purse that were in frames. She had, like, a lot of them. Her purse was full of candy and pictures of her daddy.”
“They loved their daddy,” she said.
The “This Is It” concert would have been “a pretty big show,” Sankey told jurors.
“It was going to be huge and it was going to be innovative, different,” she testified. “From working with Michael in my past, I knew it had to be something that no one’s ever seen. It all had to be new and pioneering.”
But in the weeks before Jackson’s death, there was a growing frustration about him not attending rehearsals.
Just before the court recessed for lunch, Sankey was being asked about an e-mail she sent to show director Kenny Ortega saying she was “very sad and upset” after having recurring, disturbing dreams about Jackson and the show.
READ MORE: http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/08/showbiz/jackson-death-trial/
Source: CNN / MJ-Upbeat.com (Above Photo Source: Marusya-c)
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