Kapka Kassabova probably frustrated every other tango author and might-be tango author when she snaffled the absolutely perfect name for a book on the topic: 12 Minutes of Love. (Which I really must review sometime soon.)

Last night’s Tango Secrets was four hours of love – or rather, three hours and 48 minutes, as the inconsiderate Elizabeth Line schedule means London-based visitors have to skip the last tanda …

Irina’s DJing is always spectacularly good. I remarked last night that there are a number of DJs whose selections I love, but even with most of them, I’m never in a hurry to change my shoes for the first tanda, as it will likely be an older, simpler, rhythmical one. It takes most of them time to transition into the music I love. But Irina is straight in with The Good Stuff!

A friend of hers was visiting from Italy, and hadn’t made the trek out west before, so I met her at Whitechapel so we could travel together. Whenever you have a great chat with someone before dancing with them, there’s always that slightly awkward thought ‘What if the chat was better than the dance?’ Fortunately, there was no disappointment here.

The room was relatively quiet at first, but that soon changed! However, the floorcraft is as good as it gets, so even when there were only millimetres to spare between couples, there was no drama.

Well, almost no drama! I don’t usually venture into the inner ronda, as even at the most disciplined of milongas, things can get a little more freeform there. But as there was no space at all in the outer one, I headed inside only to have someone later do the same in front of me, trapping myself and two other couples in the paper-thin space in the very centre. That required some creative BsAs-level dancing!

Floorcraft is generally thought of as a leader skill, but as I commented to a friend afterwards, followers also need the skill to dance small. It’s an absolute joy to be able to lead a compact giro on a crowded floor, knowing I can trust the follower to turn within our own space.

The sheer number of dancers, and the constant flow of gorgeous music, meant that milonga tandas were about the only chance I got to sit down – and not even all of those.

Milonga and I remain in a complicated relationship. There’s still a huge gap between what my head would like to be doing, and what my body feels it can lead at milonga speeds, alongside a concern about a possibly equal-sized gap between follower expectations and my reality. On the other hand, there are followers who knowingly drag me out onto the pista for milonga tandas, and even a couple who specifically seek me out for them. I have a private next week on this topic.

I’ve mentioned many times before that I love dancing with a mix of familiar and unfamiliar followers. Tango Secrets has a great many regulars, but there are always some first-time visitors too, so I had the chance to do both. The floor is just the right width – enough space for an inner and outer ronda, but also perfectly practical to cabeceo from one side to the other. Each of the new partners were a joy; across the entire evening, I didn’t have a single tanda that was anything less than lovely.

I’ve also written a great deal on finding my own style in tango, and while this is of course an evolving phenomenon rather than a fixed one, I do feel like I’m in a good place with this. I have a very clear sense of what I enjoy, and I think an equally clear one of what my partners like about dancing with me.

The evening absolutely flew by. If this were a weekly milonga, I’d be there almost every week. As it is, I have to make it through a month before the next one. Hope to see some of you there.