I had never thought much about tango, let alone the idea of learning it. But my husband has a tango-dancing colleague who finally persuaded us to join an Introductory Weekend Tango Workshop.

It’s hard to explain how it was, that after a mentally and physically gruelling, very hot January weekend, we were hooked. Was it the Golden Age music, new to our ears? Was it ‘the pleasure of the embrace’? Was it the enjoyment of trying to master a whole new way of moving? Could it have been the slightly surreal atmosphere of the Tiki Lounge where Polynesian Bar meets retro lounge furniture and a dance floor above a bolt warehouse with the soundtrack of trams rumbling past? Or was it the teaching of David and Di of Sidewalk Tango and seeing their beautiful and exciting dancing?

Who knows! All those elements swirled around in my head, settled very slightly and then generated the momentum to be climbing the stairs a few days later to join the first Basic class of the year.

And here I am! A few years later and still excited to be heading out  towards our class or a Sunday afternoon Practica or a Milonga. I wish I had started learning years and years earlier.

• ‘Eaglehawk Girl. A Freerange Child’ is launched.
• Return to Tango – 9 months on.
• Voleos in Tango:Shape-changing and the Washing Machine.
• Hip Replacement and Tango: 6 months
• Back to Tango after Total Hip Replacement: 5 months
• Mountain Tango
• The Lady’s Basic
• Sidewalk Tango and Enid Blyton’s “The Magic Faraway Tree”.
• Tango, Breathing and the Entrega
• Return to Tango after Total Hip Replacement: Weeks 14-15