It's a familiar scene in Dalston - a candlelit studio-cum-venue is slowly filling with young creative types gathering on mismatched furniture by an open fire while a black cat skulks around their feet. But these fashionable folk of Hackney borough aren't just here to pose, pout and soak up the scene - they are here to tango.

The Argentine dance, which has been quietly sweeping through London's underground culture, was recently thrown into the spotlight with the arrival last weekend of the International Tango Festival at Porchester Hall. But outside this annual Bayswater event, tango's home lies right here, in the heart of east London. While the early autumn days played host to tango walks and tango picnics at Dalston Garden, with the onset of winter things are now hotting up indoors, along with the help of Tango @ The Light at Shoreditch's Light Bar, EastEnderos Milonga in Whitechapel and the class I have just walked into - Dalston's Hackney Tango.

Hidden away in the Old Cholmeley Boys Club on Boleyn Road, the room is commanded by Luis Rodriguez, a Brazilian "maestro" who will be leading the class, as he sashays over and draws the group around him. With 15 years of tango training and a background in ballet, he brings with him his Welsh protégé of two and half years, Elizabeth Knock, and an air of camp ease that removes any margin for awkwardness - a relief for a complete novice like myself.

But on Rodriguez's "Tango Planet" we are not to think of ourselves as beginners. Instead, we are his "Tango Babies", and Sambo, the resident cat, holds the key to unlocking our potential. "He moves with the smoothness you need," Rodriguez declares, as he takes us through the basics. "Robotic movements are the enemy of tango. The answer is connection - connect your heart, your head and your soul together. You and your partner must be like magnets." And, as I soon learn, this isn't a sexual euphemism. Aptly - the dance's title is a "vertical expression of horizontal desire" - within five minutes we are being taught "the Boobie Technique":gluing your chest to that of your partner's.

But this is no place for cheap thrills. "There's a myth that the tango is a purely sexual dance but it's much more that way in a nightclub," Elizabeth tells me afterwards. "Tango is like life. There's no choreography; you must feel your way and use your creativity."

Perhaps this is what draws in the residents of east London. Despite the venue having been closed for six months for refurbishment, the newly relaunched night shows no signs of a dip in popularity. "There's always a real mix of people," says Rodriguez. "It can get a bit mad but then there's nothing rational about the dance either. It's all about instinct."

After the class, this becomes clear with the Milonga Bohemienne - a freestyle tango party where you can practise your moves until the early hours. I ask Mark Zudini, the event organiser, what he thinks is behind the dance's newfound allure. "You don't need to just go to the pub and get drunk when you can come here and have a tango," he tells me. "There is no pressure from drink or drugs here, just music and dance. It's really quite simple."