London commuters take to Tango.

If tonight’s rush-hour journey (between 6pm and 7pm) takes you over a bridge, or through a main station, be prepared for some unusual encounters. The metropolis’s tango community will be out in force: couples - young, old, new-style, old-school - will be plugged into shared iPods, and dancing to their own little tunes.

This is ‘Tango Commute’, the brainchild of Thomas Lindner, a German-born dancer who, quite simply, wants to cheer up the daily, communal troop homewards – oh, and demonstrate the fine art of “hugging musically”, as he rather sweetly puts it.

The first event was last month on London Bridge; tonight’s, part of the Major of London’s initiative, Big Dance 2008, is a more ambitious affair, involving seven bridges and seven stations (details of which can be found by clicking here ). It is, obliquely, a way of marking the anniversary of the 7 July bombings, but like the “flash mobs”, silent discos and tube-train parties that have gone before it, its main purpose is to inject some spontaneous pleasure into proceedings, a little bit of connectedness in an environment where interaction is generally limited to pointedly ignoring everyone around you.

Commuters, eyes fixed on their target - the tube station ahead – are suddenly confronted with dancers wafting into their vision. You can almost read their thoughts: What the hell are they dancing to? And why are they on the bloody bridge? First, they’re annoyed to have yet another obstacle to get round, then they’re begrudgingly intrigued; then, often, they grab a shot on their mobile phones.