3549 Buenos Aires - 5 years later - part 2
Date: Mon, 27 Jun 2005 16:45:29 -0600
From: Tom Stermitz <stermitz@TANGO.ORG>
Subject: Buenos Aires - 5 years later - part 2
CABECEO or "THE EYE GAME"
Janis Kenyon has claimed that if the guy approaches your table to
request a dance, then by definition he is a bad dancer. In my
experience, this is a fair and reasonable general assessment. The
exception is if you know the person, or you have the confidence to
take a chance. This isn't too risky (on either side) if you have
already seen them dance. Finally, it is common to stand up and walk
half-way to her table to catch her eye en transit.
My partner's dances from unknown walk-up dancers were really bad.
Some teacher-guys, would even cause her to misstep, then offer their
card.
While dancing, some women keep their eyes closed, others open. It is
common to catch winks, smiles and "hellos" from the ladies who are
dancing. When they stop between songs, a lot of the guys face the
women's away from the tables to prevent this.
None of my followers ever intervened in my dance, that is tried to
help me avoid a collision.
MILONGA LAYOUT
Tables line and delimit the dance floor at a milonga, so people can
watch the dancers and catch eyes. In addition there are areas on one
or two sides of the floor with closely-placed tables. Everyone has a
seat for their coat and drink, unless maybe it is a leaning post by
the bar for some of the guys.
It is interesting to compare how the different milongas are set up to
allow eye-contact. For the most part (but not exclusively) men sat in
certain areas, women in others, and couples at one end (they have
each other so don't need the cabeceo). This is handled by the
Ubicacion Lady or Man, who welcomes you with a kiss on the cheek, and
helps you find a place. The up-front tables are mostly reserved, as
those allow the best view of your potential partners.
Certain milongas were set up particularly well to allow the eye contact:
Centro Region Leonesa (Nino Bien, Los Consagrados and others) has a
longer, narrower dance floor, with the women on one side, men on the
other. When the floor empties between sets, it is very easy to catch
eyes across the way. Once the dancing starts, it isn't so easy.
Viejo Correo is even better. The sitting area is between the entrance
and the dance floor split by a path for the couples to walk to the
dance floor, so your line-of-sight to get a dance is extremely short,
and never blocked by the dancers. Sitting in the first row is the hot-
seat; new guy shows up and all the women are trying to catch his eye.
There's nowhere for him to look without falling into a dance.
El Beso. Here the men & women are on adjacent sides of the rectangle.
Still easy to catch a dance, until the floor fills up, then you can
still see each other on the diagonal.
FRIENDLINESS and GETTING DANCES
The old social codes are more relaxed these days, more like
preferences or guidelines, rather than rules
In general, the atmosphere was very friendly and welcoming; more so
than I remember five years ago. Even the better dancers were happy to
try out the newcomers, once they us dance. It is easier to dance
around if a couple sits apart, but the super-traditional codes are
not as fixed as they used to be. Once you start mixing, they realize
you are there to dance.
Mostly we went to the afternoon milongas, where the floorcraft and
quality was consistently very good, and the friendliness quotient was
very high (except for monday afternoon, where the organizer was just
plain nasty; not sure what bee got stuck where... all we did was
change tables to sit with a friend; it wasn't even a reserved table).
El Beso has a reputation for having a lot of good dancers, but also
for being clique-ish. Yes to the good dancers, but we didn't have
problems dancing around.
We found Los Consagrados on Saturday to be particularly friendly,
even on our first appearance there. Line of sight for the eye game
helps. Also, just about everyone sits right on the floor so they get
to see you dance.
I would offer some generalities about getting more dances.
- You need to know milonguero to dance at most milongas. Maybe
there are some exceptions
- Really learn to dance to the music. REALLY get to know the music.
Listen and dance.
- Take privates to clean up your embrace and your "feel", but you
don't need lots of fancy steps.
- A middle-aged person might not get many dances at a milonga
populated with young people.
- Work your way up. The first dances are hardest, but then you
start mixing and seeing the same people from the days before. Like
all social scenes, once you get a circle of friends, you get repeat
dances, and passed around to their friends.
Tom Stermitz
https://www.tango.org
2525 Birch St
Denver, CO 80207
