i was enchanted by the mysterious dance that Mine and Ercument were doing in 1996 in between teaching us high school students a simple jive and a simple turkish tango version.
i was distracted by jazz, latin and ballroom during the next few years so it took a few more years before this love at first sight played out its part in my life. also, argentine tango was not taught in ankara until 1999.
in early 1999 Metin Yazir came and did some of the very first Argentine tango workshops in Ankara. while he recruited teachers and developed a relationship with the METU couple dances club, i started practicing and teaching with one of his trainee teachers, Serkan Yilmaz.
with Serkan and, after his departure to oil lands, with my dear friend Murat Gurmen, i taught, practiced and performed intensively between 2000 and 2003. then i moved to christchurch, new zealand in pursuit of another love story.
i discovered a small tango community in christchurch. i met a very important person, dearest Rima Herber early on. she was tentatively taking over the classes as the only teacher Emma was leaving and Rima could not bear the thought of no tango.
i taught with Rima and with Phil for five years until i stopped regular classes in 2008 when going through registration as an architect. during those five years many wonderful things happened. the community produced many wonderful teachers and our little christchurch has been visited by some world class teachers who injected new inspiration to the community. floor space has become a cosy hub.
enduring a series of devastating earthquakes in 2010-11, we've made it to 2018. the community has multiple teachers, dj's and multiple milongas as well as many experienced dancers.