Smelling of Deep Heat (in case of injury), I turned up early at the Pineapple Dance Studios to meet Josef Brown, an effortlessly handsome man with one of those sinewy dancer's bodies. He looked more than a bit like a young Patrick Swayze as he broke into a large grin. Clearly word had got out that he was meeting a groupie!
The music went on - Time of My Life on repeat - and suddenly I was transported into the Sixties world of the movie as Josef started moving his great big hunk of a body. He was incredibly sexy when he started to dance. To make things worse he was wearing ripped jeans, a T-shirt and holey socks which somehow were very cool on him. I felt very prissy in my dancer's outfit.
He was the perfect teacher. And of course I believed him when he looked into my eyes and told me I was "doing good". I became the ideal pupil. As we moved around the dancefloor I became completely absorbed - I didn't even notice the other people in the room.
At one point he started talking in an American accent, and straight away he became Johnny. I was Baby, and he was clearly going to capture my heart. I tried hard to stay calm when he suggested I stand with my legs apart so we could get close enough to do the mambo.
The only glitch came when he asked me to stop leading him, and to avoid treading on his feet, both of which I then did. But he was enchanting, and before I knew it I was mambo-ing, swirling, dipping and swaying with Josef staring into my eyes.
And the smell was incredible. There's nothing quite like the scent of a sweaty dance studio. It brought it all back - the training in my youth in a studio just round the corner from where we were whirling round the room. It was a very sexy smell - it smelled like the film.
By the end of our lesson I'd mastered the routine to the soundtrack. He told me I was a quick learner - I think those Strictly Ballroom lessons paid off. It had been a very intimate hour. We'd only just met but we'd done an intensely sexy mambo, our hips close and eyes locked.
Then just as suddenly as it began the magic was gone. Our time was up and Josef had to rush off.
I had, quite literally, just had the time of my life. For that brief moment it was total perfection and for me there's no going back. For this Baby, it is well and truly time to get out of the corner.
