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Search for dancer just platonic By Paul Fattig We had better get this straight at the outset: Scott Frazeur likes being married. Fact is, the Merlin-area resident and his wife, Elyn, have been married for 30 years. "I�m a happily married man with two grown sons," he stresses. "But, in the beginning of all this, she wondered, �Uh, just what are you doing?�" Turns out what he was doing was purely platonic, albeit it�s understandable it would initially raise a few spousal eyebrows. It began when Frazeur, 59, a retired U.S. Navy photographer who has taken pictures around the globe, was asked last fall to do an exhibit of his photographs at the Josephine County Fairgrounds in Grants Pass. One of the nearly 100 photographs he displayed was of a Spanish flamenco dancer with flashing eyes. "People kept asking me about her," he says. "They wanted to know her name, where I took the photograph and whatever happened to her." The name � Maria Magdalena Ramirez Garces � took him back nearly 40 years. Raised in the Bay Area, Frazeur joined the Navy out of high school in 1960 and eventually received orders for Rota, Spain. At age 19, the jaunty sailor strolled aboard his first ship. "We arrived in Spain via a troop transport after traveling the North Atlantic, barfing all over the place," he says. "I was just a young kid, the first time away from home." Rota is in southern Spain, the region considered the birthplace of flamenco dancing. "I�ve done my fair share of carousing," he says of his younger years. "But, when a lot of the guys were out getting drunk, I liked to take my camera out and mingle with the people." He had learned at a young age that showing interest in another culture is the path to rewarding friendships, one that leads to a better understanding of our complex world. He also figured it was much more pleasant than getting slobbering drunk and waking up with a hangover. He learned Spanish. "Spanish flamenco dancing really intrigued me," he says. "It was so energetic, so dynamic." By 1962, he was shooting pictures for the manager of the local enlisted men�s club. His focal point was often a flamenco troupe that included Maria. "I shot a lot of pictures of her," he says. "Well, one thing led to another and we started dating. "One person in her entourage told me to leave her alone, that she was going to be a superstar and that I was nothing," he adds. "It was that protective umbrella of a culture coming out when someone comes in from the outside." But the young sailor took it seriously. "I was just a kid � I didn�t know anything," he says. By then it was 1963 and Frazeur had just received orders to head stateside. "I had told her on a Thursday that I would be back that Saturday, and her and I would go out and talk," he says. What he did not realize was that sailors about to be shipped out are restricted to the base. "I never got to see her again," he says. The photographic exhibit last fall renewed his interest in flamenco dancing. He decided to search for the person who shared that interest. As part of the search, he even created a Web site at www.whereismaria.com. After six months of e-mails, letters and telephone calls, he located her sister in Spain. "She was the chaperone who followed us everywhere we went," he says. "She�s 74 now but she remembered me." Her sister put him in contact with Maria, now 57, who still dances and has her own dance troupe in southern Spain. She also has an 18-year-old daughter who dances flamenco. "Some people thought I was looking for a long lost love,�� he says. "But Maria and I just have a good friendship. And we�re both interested in flamenco." They have formed a non-profit organization called The ORSpain Foundation whose goal it is to start a cultural center in Ashland and a sister center in Spain. Maria is expected to visit in the fall of 2001. "I want to do something beneficial for flamenco art," he says. "This is something that would be wonderful for both countries and our cultures." And it won�t hurt his marriage one bit. Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at [email protected] Obituaries | Sports | Business | Classifieds | Tempo | Prime Times | So Oregon Sites | Outdoor Journal | Subscribe | Contact | Movies | Advertise | Real Estate Showcase | Archive | Editorials | Letters to the editor | Religion | Wake-up Call | NIE | Cyber Chef | Job Network | So Oregon Weather | WSJ Northwest | Forums | AP Wire | AP Money | F.A.Q. | Awards Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. The Community Newspaper Subsidiary of Dow Jones & Co, Inc Copyright �The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA