Tango taster videos are a concept that emerged from sharing short video clips of festivals and milongas on Facebook, and people who’d never been to them telling me how useful they were.

They said that while still photos can be fantastic for capturing the romance of an event, there’s no substitute for video when it comes to giving a sense of what it’s actually like to be there …

There’s not much attempted artistry to these, just a way to give a feel for the atmosphere and style of dancing at an event.

I’ve so far posted them for a couple of Tango Feast festivals, Septonathon (Etonathon) and the Toronto Spring Tango Marathon. I’ve now rather belatedly created one for what I think of as my ‘home’ milonga – despite the fact that it’s a good 30 miles outside London.

I first started dancing at Tango Secrets almost three years ago now, when it was not at all easy to reach from the capital. These days, however, it’s a breeze – thanks to the Elizabeth Line.

Taplow station is just 36 minutes from Paddington, and Irina’s husband Jonathon is usually able to offer a free pickup and drop-off service. There’s even time to dance the last tanda and still make the last through-train which runs through to east London.

I won’t say more about it here as I’ve written a couple of blog posts about it in the past:

• Tango Secrets: A long-awaited visit to a tiny village in Buckinghamshire
• Three hours and 48 minutes of love: A perfect night at Tango Secrets

The taster video below comprises clips from a whole bunch of Secrets milongas over the time I’ve been going. One thing the videos may or may not show is that, somehow, miraculously, the role-balance is often near-perfect!

Secrets is monthly, typically on the second or third Friday of the month, together with additional ones on some bank holiday Mondays. More details on the website.

You’ll find the other taster videos, a couple of tango short films, performance videos and more on my YouTube channel.