I was rather shocked to see that my last following lesson was way back in September! I had another private with Emma in the diary for a week ago, but unfortunately she caught a nasty bug and then disappeared off to India. (Bit of an extreme way to avoid subjecting herself to my following, if you ask me.)

I knew I desperately needed more practice, but I’d felt hesitant about doing more than extremely occasional intercambio tandas at milongas, for two reasons …

First, my following is not anywhere remotely close to milonga standard. I mean, I’ve done a tiny bit of following at festivals, but those are special circumstances. It’s almost exclusively been with experienced followers who’ve taken up leading – many of whom now have years of leading experience too. This is the jackpot for a beginner follower like me, as they know how the lead should feel, as well as having empathy for the challenges of learning the complementary role. They’re also able to keep things simple enough that we’re not a nuisance to anyone else on the floor.

Second, given that the traditional roles are still very much the norm, and given the imbalance between leaders and followers, if I switch from leading to following, even for a few tandas, then that’s two fewer leaders available for those who exclusively follow – which hasn’t seemed fair.

But I realised that Queer Tango London would solve both problems.

QTL is a London based Argentine tango organisation that is open to everyone, free of the rigid structure that men must lead and women must follow.  We believe that anyone can dance with anyone, regardless of gender or sexuality and we passionately believe in the benefits of Tango to both the mind and body. So if you want to dance tango – and  experiment with who does what, why, and how – we want to encourage that curiosity.  You will always be welcome at QTL whoever you are and whomever you wish to dance with. 

My appalling incompetence as a follower wouldn’t be a barrier because the event is part-milonga, part-practica, and welcomes dancers of all levels, including complete beginners. And I wouldn’t have the guilt of dancing the non-traditional role because the whole ethos of QTL is anyone can dance either role, and there’s no shortage of dual-role dancers – or at least, people aspiring to be such.

I danced with a few followers aspiring to lead. A beginner leader with a beginner follower is more of a recipe for hilarity than for dance (looking back to my early tango days now, I have no idea how that ever worked!), and a few of us demonstrated as much. But hey, there was a lot of laughter, and remarkably few broken limbs.

But I was also fortunate enough to dance with some experienced leaders too. One was kind enough to claim I followed 90% of what she led – a claim I do not believe would stand up in court – but even though I estimated my overall percentage at closer to 35%, it was still (a) encouraging and (b) really helpful.

In Emma’s extended absence, I also feel that it might be time to return to another teacher who took an approach which didn’t work for me at the time (a centimetre by centimetre examination of the lead and follow of each movement) but I think might well prove perfect now.

Either way, I shall certainly be returning to future QTL events to get some more follower miles under my feet.

Thanks to Tina for the photo (and the videos, which will be subject to the 30-year rule …)