Wys - Zorba the cypriot

One night when I was 14 years old, back when I came to Nicosia to learn my craft, I was on Ermou street. There were some taverns where we used to go and buy a bottle of wine for 1 shilling. That night I saw a friend there, the radio was playing in the background and he was dancing, probably ‘Zeibekiko’ but I am still not sure what it was. The year was 1954. Since then, I have never seen anyone dance like that in my whole life. That night, I decided that I had to learn how to dance. After that I started getting older and as we were in Cyprus by the time I found my teacher Mr. Demetris, I had wasted 60 years. Mesut is a remarkable person because in his age he has managed to sign up for group classes in order to learn how to dance ‘zeibekiko’. Not something that someone who is 70-75 years old would easily go and do. I admire him greatly for his patience, his will power and definitely his eagerness to learn something new at this age. When he called me and told me that he loves all the Greek folklore dances, and that he would like to learn how to dance ‘zeibekiko’ I was touched. He came here at the school and during that first time he got emotional. I was teaching ‘Hasapiko’ and while he was watching from that corner bench he wept. I was very impressed with the way a Turkish Cypriot feels about Greek music. Of course some types of this Greek music have origins and common roots from Asia Minor and Constantinople such as ‘Hasapiko'. It is definitely something that we have in our genes. These sounds are common both for Turkish and Greek Cypriots. Look, in 1955 EOKA became active. Then in 1958, we started fighting between us, which is something that I never wanted to have happened. There was no place to go and dance. We went through very hard times. Then in 1968, things started straightening out. They opened the gates for us. We could get by. Up until then I could not leave Nicosia and hadn’t visited my village for three years. Then we were enclosed for 40 years. What can I say, both you and us, on both sides have lost out. Cypriots have lost out. Now that I come here to Mr. Demetris’ dance school, I am 71 years old and I feel as if I am 16. I feel good. Very good. I feel very very good. It’s because I like it a lot - I don’t dance that well but I will learn. I will manage. Before I die, I will learn something new.