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 :)

 

TILLA 141 times since 1998

I heard about it and Raimund (Berlin) ask me several times to come there but it did not fit in my agenda. But then in February, 1998 he took me there to the 10th birthday of el corte. Sure it was not a normal salon weekend.

When we arrived after seven or eight hours by train I was surprised as every first time visitor. As I planned to stay the nights in el corte I wondered about how it will work. I have not been for years in such a "camp" where you share everything, almost. I thought it would be difficult to find my own space in that place. But even after two and half years and more than thirty times in el corte I never felt that el corte is not spacious enough to find my place in there... and today I could not imagine not to stay and sleep there.

Friday night was as normal as the Fridays are in front of the salon. That evening during a long time I only observed, trying to find out whom I should dance with. Finally I took my whole courage and ask Marco to dance and I think it was not the worst choice ;-), I always love to dance with him.

Saturday then was the birthday. A special dinner took place and than a kind of "ball" in the O42 in Nijmegen. The whole evening was very different to the normal Saturday salons, but I did not know that yet. The nice and surprising thing of this night was that I met a lot of people I have already met around Europe and I found out that they are all frequent guests in Eric's place.

Since then I experienced so different days, nights, weeks in el corte, different energies and atmospheres, sometimes with more dancing, sometimes with only a few, sometimes crowed and one time alone. And it was at every time a most welcoming place where I never have the feeling that there would not be a place for me. I look forward to the coming hundred times I will stay in el corte.

But if you are coming the more and more often to el corte, the more important and more difficult question is how to go home afterwards.