Stranger in A Familiar Land

I returned to New Orleans, went back for the 90th birthday of my Flamenco dance teacher, Teresa Torkanowsky. I took classes from her "on the side" while studying ballet in the sixties with Lelia Haller, and later was invited to be a member of her company: Ole Flamenco Ole. It is rarely an easy thing to go back. It isn't an easy thing to write about going back. I keep wanting to slam the computer lid down on the feelings that come rushing to the surface. The memories... Let it be enough to say that Teresa appeared in my life at a time when I needed a savior as much as a teacher. 

At the party, in a small Spanish restaurant rented for the occasion, I sat with people I didn't know, making an effort to be friendly, enduring the over-amplified live flamenco music, waiting for my beloved teacher and director of fifty years ago to appear. When she did arrive it was in a wheelchair pushed by a caregiver, and again I made an effort, clapping and cheering with the others. Ole! Ole! Ole!

Eventually, I got my chance to approach and embrace the elderly woman whose pale gold curls and delicate brows were an odd replacement for the upswept raven-black tresses I remembered. Where were the winged brows above the dancer's flashing eyes? I kissed the soft old cheek and said my name, drew back and looked for the spark of recognition in my teacher's eyes. I thought I heard her say: "Your voice is just the same." Yours, too, Teresa. Yours, too...

I held back tears for half an hour more before I left and found my way back to The Prytania Park Hotel. Perhaps I continued to hold back tears as I slept and during my morning visit to Audubon Park. During the long drive home through pounding rain... The photo above and one of the extras is from the park. I couldn't bring myself to post a picture from the party. Instead I post a scan of a zerox copy of a photo taken of Teresa's company dancing the Jota at the Monteleone Hotel in the late sixties. Teresa is in the front with her partner, and I am behind her to the left.