My latest following lesson was with Diego. He normally comes to my apartment, but as he had wall-to-wall bookings, I had to cycle to his studio in deepest south London, fending off dragons, rogues and vagabonds as I went. It was worth it.

We danced a song, and I entirely failed to follow a cross. Twice. Or maybe more, who knows. He did, however, have good news for me …

After leading another cross with a lead the size of South America, he said that I had no problem following one – the very exaggerated way it used to be led back in the 1930s. So the moment I get my hands on a time-machine, I’m ready to rock and/or roll.

We danced another song, and this time my following was so good that Diego really struggled to think of anything in need of improvement. All he managed to come up with was my posture, balance, steps, rebounds, and pivots – everything else was perfect.

So we worked on fine-tuning those few missing elements, in both close- and open-embrace. I told him that I find it much harder to follow in open embrace, and he identified two reasons for this.

First, I needed to really lean back into his right hand. In that way, the signals were obvious. Second, I need to maintain my frame in open embrace – yes, with flexibility, but if the frame distorts, then the signals are lost.

I was still finding myself guessing at what was being led, and rushing in like a male bovine in a porcelain emporium, especially where pivots are concerned. Diego repeated the follower’s mantra: when in doubt, do nothing. Or, as Mabel would put it, focus on actively maintaining the four points of contact. I remember beginner followers always panicking about missing something, and going onto auto-pilot with whatever they suspected might have been led, and now here I am doing the exact same thing.

But in the course of an hour, we made remarkable progress. By the final song, what I was doing did kind of almost bear some kind of resemblance to a very rough approximation of following.

Seriously, as with my two previous lessons with Emma and with Mabel, there were times in which I was really following, and it does feel incredible. I fully understand the addiction from the other side, now.

Mabel’s guidance on paradas – find the leader’s heel first – started to feel really natural, as did stepping over but not transferring my weight until either it was led, or the music demanded it.

Of course, there is just a little work to be done on things like walking and turning, but I do feel I’m at a new point with it now. Early on, the idea of learning to follow was just this vague and highly aspirational idea. I honestly had no idea how far I’d take it. A little later it transformed into something that I might, with sufficient work, one day be able to do, a bit.

But now … for all the vast amount of work needed, I do for the first time feel confident that I’m going to stick with it. I may not have a route back to 1930, but I do feel like, by 2024, I might actually be in a position to describe myself as a fledgling dual-role dancer. Exciting stuff!