The Most Elegant Milonguero

[Helaine Treitman <treitman @giotto.org>]

When I was in Buenos Aires last November, I was in a mode of dancing
 for quality, not quantity.  I would rather enjoy the music and watch
 the floor than have a disappointing tanda.  So one crowded Saturday
 night at "Las Morochas" (same place as "El Beso"), I noticed a
 smallish, slim, balding man, impeccably groomed and beautifully
 dressed, looking in my direction.  He was inviting me to dance.  I
 thought "I don't know you, I've never seen you dance," and I looked
 the other way.
BIG MISTAKE.
Because minutes later I was watching the dance floor and one dancer
 stood out - and this was a night that the place was full of "stars".
 I couldn't take my eyes off the exquisite dancing of this elegant
 man, the same one I had just declined.  My mouth must have dropped
 open as I thought "That's NESTOR RAY!"  I had seen him once at a
 milonga in Bologna two years earlier and I recognized him only by his
 dancing.  It was beautiful.  Needless to say, he did not look in my
 direction again that night, and as they say in Italian, I ate my
 elbow.
Fortunately, the next night I had a date at Club Canning to meet
 Nestor's wonderful wife, Patricia Garcia; she and I had been emailing
 occasionally for a couple of years about their maybe coming to
 Umbria.  Nestor was at the table, and I apologized for my arrogance
 or ignorance the night before.  After my chat with Patricia, I moved
 to a separate table.  Soon, Nestor invited me to dance, and it was a
 total pleasure.  Aside from the marvelous things he does with the
 music, he is so clean and precise, and I've never met anyone else who
 dances with that degree of tortion, or "contrabody motion", which in
 turn calls for a strong contrabody response (upper body rotating in
 opposition to pelvis, or vice versa).  Wow, what a sensation.
After that tanda, I said, "That's all.  I can go home now".   But I
 got to watch as Nestor and Patricia danced a milonga.  I couldn't get
 my eyes off them and I couldn't stop smiling.  I went home early and
 had a glass of wine, having hardly danced that night, buy very happy.

Why am I telling you this?  Next Monday I have the honor of receiving
 Nestor as my guest in Umbria for 10 days, doing classes for my new
 Tango Center in Todi!  If anyone in the international tango community
 has comments about Nestor please write me so I can share the with my
 local students in Terni, Todi and Perugia who are so excited about
 his arrival.

Good tangos, everyone.
Helaine