ERIC nijmegen netherlands
- Almost nobody knew about the transfer to come.

SAMANTHA cambridge england
- There were men dancing together like whirling dervishes.

FREDRIK braunschweig germany
- I have been waiting a long time in front of the toilet door waiting for that man to get out!

MELIN instanbul turkey
- I stood in front of the building and asked myself where my home was.

TILLA frankfurt germany
- I met a lot of people I have already met around Europe and I found out that they are all frequent guests.

TOVE lund sweden
- So even if I was impressed by a lot of things I mostly wanted to leave.

HENRY nijmegen netherlands
- My friends had a very good time because they noticed that something happened to me.

STEFAN nijmegen netherlands
- I finally dared to ask one of the 'local heroes'. What an energetic explosion!

MAX dortmund germany
- He welcomed me with my name without having seen me before.

THORSTEN düsseldorf germany
- At this point I wonder if El Corte is a regular dancing school.

SINAN valletta malta
- I felt myself disappointed at the very first impression.

RUTH totnes england
- This is very hands-on peace work, so badly needed in a world full of fighting and disconnection..

GREG seatle usa
- I can't begin to describe the truth of that prediction.

ELISABETH bologna italy
- I survived though, and have
lived to tell the tale.

GUIDO & MY moers germany
- Wir alle suchten dann noch seine Socken (auf denen My saß...)

JO london england
- I had never seen such a beautiful dance floor.

JESSE los angeles usa
- It's like I've came back home to old friends that I haven't met yet.

CHRISTIAN rotterdam netherlands
- Some other tangueras y tangueros immediatly guided me where to store away my belongings - 'regulars' as I later learned.

JOHN totnes england
- The collective excitement was filling the space to bursting point, threatening to build to a lighting strike...

PASCALE lille france
- Et quand ils quittent la piste, c’est dans le silence, dans le recueillement de la danse...

ALEX portland usa
- and I left after the week's dancing was done with the tango-junky's needle still in my arm wanting more.

STELLA berkeley usa
- We had to stand in the cold in our light tango clothes until the doors opened.

NITIN washington usa
- I liked the absence of any sign except the street number, 108: a little frisson of anxiety, is one at the right place?

RENÉ & CHANTAL roosendaal netherlands
- The decision to leave was an easy one;
no, we were not ready for El Corte.

KATIA moscow russia
- I can speak El Corte’s tango-language! Well… may be with some accent :)

 

MELIN 13 times since 1999

The first time that I visited El Corte was December of 1999. It was midday, Friday before the first Saturday of the month when there would be an international milonga. I had Zeynep and Selim with me. We were excited to see the famous El Corte. We went inside and it was totally empty. There was only one guy resting inside. I said I wanted to see the dance floor and he opened the curtains of the inside dance salon and it looked so nice to me. But I could never imagine that it would make me filled with intense feeling of peace, love and positivism later on.

I had a wonderful milonga on Saturday night with so many people that I have not seen before. When I was going back to my country I was sure that I would go there again. And I did. To the international week. This is the time when I felt that something in El Corte was very strongly taking half of my heart.

I had an incredible week and I felt as if I would never go back to Istanbul. But the day came. When I was going back home, it was so so hard for me and I was no longer sure where I belonged to. I was totally lost about where I wanted to be and who I wanted to be. I felt as if I was leaving a piece of me behind.

It was late at night when I arrived to my apartment in Istanbul. I stood in front of the building and asked myself where my home was. I did not feel that my home was my home any longer. I was feeling that I left my heart and home in Nijmegen and began to wait for the time that I will go back to my lovely home. I feel homesick.