Arts Diary: Tim's Tributes to Kelly and Astaire

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IT WAS so long ago I could not recall exactly when I first saw American singer/ dancer Tim Flavin in the Rodgers and Hart show On Your Toes . ``It was 1984,'' Flavin reminds me and he has good reason for recalling the date. ``That show started a whole new life for me. I was called over from the States to do it and it was a huge success - I was in it for a year andahalf.''

Flavin had co-starred with Natalia Makarova, the Russian-born ballet dancer who had defected to the West, and a highlight was a lengthy ballet sequence of Slaughter on Tenth Avenue ``Until then I had been a gipsy for around six years,'' he says,gipsy being the dance world's name for a chorus dancer. ``That's …