When Ray Tanva left Bermuda in 1949 it was with many undiscovered talents and no idea that they existed.

He began life in New York City as an actor. Like many young people who set out on life's road with a head full of dreams and an anaemic wallet, he could not afford to live alone so he shared accommodation in Greenwich Village with a group of dancers. Ignorant of just how physically demanding their profession was, he dismissed their constant complaints of sore feet with, `You can't be like that, you look so happy on stage'.

Finally, the dancers challenged him to witness for himself the demands of their profession - an offer he happily accepted.

"I watched a rehearsal and a class, and I was so stunned to see the reality of it that I thought, `I've got to do that myself', so off I went and I trained like hell," Mr. Tanva remembers.

"The first year was treacherous. Every ounce of my body ached because I started using muscles I hadn't used before."

Nonetheless, his perseverance and dedication paid off and he went on to become a sought-after professional dancer who joined some of the most prestigious dance companies in the world, including Ballet Russe (where he met Madame Ana Roje, with whom he appeared as Hilarian in Bermuda's first full-length ballet, `Giselle', in 1959), Ballet Rambert, the National Ballet in Amsterdam and The Royal Ballet in Britain, the latter of which he danced with for 15 years.

His career included living and working in New York, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Sweden, Denmark, and Germany, as a result of which he now speaks five languages, and during which he scored several "firsts": as the only white dancer ever to be included in the company of renowned Indian dancer, Ramgopal; and as an agent for change in the royal ballets of Sweden and Denmark, where foreigners were traditionally excluded.

As with most talented dancers, Mr. Tanva's career was not only varied and fulfilling, but also filled with highlights, both good and bad.

There was, for example, the time when he was dancing with a Ramgopal's company in Paris. Two days before the show was due to open the dancer arrived from India to discover that the leading lady was pregnant. Since he could not stand pregnant women, he closed the entire company down.

Left high and dry with unpaid bills for lodgings and a running tab at a restaurant frequented by show biz artists, Mr. Tanva wondered how he was going to settle his debts. Fortunately, a good Samaritan who also patronised the restaurant not only paid his bills but gave him free accommodation at his home. The man's wife was a professional beader for leading French couturier, Jacques Fath and, as always, the Bermudian was intrigued by the intricate and beautiful work she did - so much so that she told him if he learned the art of tambour beading quickly, she would get him a job at the fabled fashion house. He did and she did. It was a skill which would later earn him recognition in other spheres. Meanwhile, through his benefactor, Mr. Tanva also landed a job as head can-can dancer at the famed Moulin Rouge in Paris.

His next move was to Amsterdam to dance with the National Ballet - an appointment that would end in disaster.

During the final rehearsal for `The Sphynx', Mr. Tanva's foot became caught in a floor cloth that had not been properly secured, and he crashed into the orchestra pit, wrecking his back. As a result, he spent the next 14 months in a Dutch hospital encased in plaster "from top to toe", followed by a further six months recuperation in Bermuda. Despite medical predictions, he subsequently fought his way back to health and good form. Ironically, 20 years later, when the same company attempted to revive this ballet, the same thing happened to a young English dancer in the same role, as a result of which the company has resolved never to attempt it again.

Through dancing with so many prestigious companies, Mr. Tanva appeared with and knew many of the world's best-known soloists, including Dame Margot Fonteyn, Rudolph Nureyev, Merle Park, and Alicia Makarova. He also acquired an endless source of juicy tales he could but won't tell. Instead, when pressed he either demurs or chooses his words very carefully. Even in retirement, a gentleman does not dish the dirt on former friends and fellow artists.

Mr.Tanva remembers Rudolph Nureyev as a genius with an unpredictable personality.

"He had a weird sense of humour and could be very naughty. On stage you never knew what you were going to get, so you had to think like mad in order not to end up look like a big boob.

He was very flamboyant and neurotic, but God what talent! It was staggering," he says. "He always wanted to learn and learn about everything because he was a peasant boy who wasn't particularly well schooled."

Nor will Mr.Tanva ever forget his first meeting with the renowned ballerina, Natalia Makarova, another fabulous Russian dancer who, like Nureyev, defected to the West - in her case while appearing with the Kirov Ballet in London.

"The day before she defected she came to my home with Ramgopal. They stayed for tea, and although she could hardly speak a word of English, it was very pleasant. Neither breathed a word about what she was about to do. The next morning the KGB arrived and swarmed all over the flat trying to try to find out if she was hiding there. I hadn't yet read the papers so I didn't know that she had defected and I kept asking, `What's happening?' but they wouldn't tell me. It was very frightening. Then, the English press thought I was somehow involved so I had them on the doorstep as well."

Years later Mr. Tanva met Madame Makarova again as he was making her costumes for the musical, `On Your Toes', and this time "she almost didn't want to know".

Nonetheless, he remembers her as a wonderful dancer whose portrayal of the dying swan in `Swan Lake' was particularly exquisite - due, he says, to "the most incredible muscle control across her back and a supple spine which enabled her to give a wonderful illusion of flying".

Retiring as a dancer, Mr. Tanva's career as a London couturier began by accident. He and his friend, British singer-dancer Peter Johnston, who has a role in this week's Bermuda Civic Ballet 30th anniversary production of `La Bayad?re', were invited to an upscale fancy dress party. It was the sort of invitation they didn't dare refuse, yet he had no time to go out and get a costume. Instead, he bought some cheap fabric, spread it on the floor, laid Mr. Johnson on top of it, cut around him, and then stitched it up.

"It was the beginning of the kaftan era, and so many people asked me about it that I knew I had to do something, so I went to the London College of Fashion and took a course in cutting, pattern making and sewing - all the basic things a growing girl needs," he quips. "Also, my mother was an incredible woman and I felt her sitting on my shoulder watching. I was very lucky."

In fact, the very modest Mr. Tanva uses "lucky" and "being in the right place at the right time" to describe all his successes in life, and attributes his creativity to being an Aquarius.

From making kaftans for his friends, he teamed up with a man known as `Mr. Fish', who was famous for his "kipper" ties, to create outrageous casual clothes for men. Muhammed Ali was a client, and he wanted a spectacular top dressing gown to make an entrance with for his "rumble in the jungle" fight in Zaire.

"It was the most beautiful white French silk, with Muhammed Ali in beadwork on the back, and on the sleeves I had to weave woollens to go with the African technique," the retired designer says. "It is now in the Smithsonian Institution."

As for the champ himself, Mr. Tanva remembers him as "the most fabulous person - so sweet and charming".

From this, he went on to form his own couture business, Images d'Or, in Chelsea, London, where he designed and made beautiful garments for a very diverse clientele, including top members of the Royal family, the late Queen Dina of Jordan, the nobility, actress Elizabeth Taylor, comedienne Joan Rivers, opera diva Jessye Norman, and a host of "ladies who dine". In addition, he had his own line of soaps and perfume, which continues.

Mr. Tanva has also designed costumes for major British stage productions, including `Beauty and the Beast'. Now he well into his month-long return to Bermuda, the London resident has been working flat out designing and cutting costumes for the Eastern-influenced `La Bayad?re', which opens tonight.

"They were very difficult because of the technology that is needed to make them look right, but they are going to be absolutely fabulous and fun," he promises. "It has been an immense job because there are over 60 costumes. There will be some lovely colours, and lots of gold, glitter and lace. (Choreographer) David Drummond has done the head dresses, which will be exquisite."

Mr. Tanva describes choosing the right material for a costume as "taking a bolt of fabric and giving birth to it. It is how you treat it that makes it comes alive".

Although he has now closed his couture business, the multi-talented Bermudian has no intention of putting his feet up.

"I am a consultant at the London College of Fashion, and it is very possible I shall be going to Russia to teach tambour beading," he says.

'La Bayad?re' will be staged in the grounds of Government House from tonight through Saturday at 8.30 p.m. Tickets (chairs $35, bleachers $25, children $12) are available from the Visitors' Service Bureau box office between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. For further information tel. 295-1727.