Cabeceo promotes better dancing

What to do when groups of men and women are sitting together at tables that are set in different directions and scattered around not in a single line... I run into this a lot in Mexico and here it is in BA at Sunderland:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=zNJrYgniLyw&NR=1
It looks to me like one would have to make sure to sit with those with whom he/she was going to dance..if not at the same table then no further than the adjoining one.
 
Mario7 said:
What to do when groups of men and women are sitting together at tables that are set in different directions and scattered around not in a single line... I run into this a lot in Mexico and here it is in BA at Sunderland:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=zNJrYgniLyw&NR=1
It looks to me like one would have to make sure to sit with those with whom he/she was going to dance..if not at the same table then no further than the adjoining one.
Click to expand...

Its Sunderland - you don't go there to dance with anybody who you don't know.

Gssh
 
Tables there are arranged pretty much like the ones at El Arranque. I had no problems getting dances there as an "unknown." (And gosh, when I got there there were only a few couples on the floor, so I really had to put myself out there.) People can, and do turn in their seats. You turn just enough so that you can scan in another direction as you turn your head.
 
dchester said:
In part of this video, from around 5:20 to 8:35, Homer and Cristina explain how they think the cabeceo should be done. They said a few things that I had never from anyone else, about how it should be done.
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I saw how they think it is done. They are wrong. They presented their way to make it easy for their students. This is not the way it is done. Homer and Cristina dont know what they are talking about.
 
jantango said:
I saw how they think it is done. They are wrong. They presented their way to make it easy for their students. This is not the way it is done. Homer and Cristina dont know what they are talking about.
Click to expand...
Can you elaborate on what was wrong with their explanation?
 
LKSO said:
Can you elaborate on what was wrong with their explanation?
Click to expand...

Cristina tells women to focus on a man with intention. That's fine. Where she shows her lack of information in the 70-year-old BsAs tradition is nodding to a man before HE has initiated any head movement. She has probably never been to a milonga in BsAs, but she should be more informed because she teaches. The culture of tango in BsAs is part of tango, and therefore should be taught.

Homer approaches Cristina with a verbal invitation to dance. The cabeceo (cabecear means to nod) is a mutual, nonverbal agreement to dance a tanda. There is no need to follow it with a verbal invitation.

Homer and Cristina have a lot to learn about the tango traditions and social dancing in BsAs. They devised an American version they are passing off as the cabeceo.

Finally, there is more interest in using head movement for the invitation outside of BsAs, but this video does not show how it is done.
 
yes, it takes guts to try and teach a foreign culture to others when it is foreign even to the teachers....they (Homer and Cristina) may finally be drawn into actually experiencing the corrida delas milongas in BsAs before going much further with this teaching. That would be very positive for everyone concerned.
 
dchester said:
I guess the thing that surprised me the most, was that she said the follower should establish eye contact with the leader, and then deliberately look away to reject him.
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Cristina Ladas does not know how the cabeceo is used in Buenos Aires, so she should not be giving any instruction.

If I notice someone looking in my direction, and I do not want to dance (now or ever) with him, I do not look at him for a second. That way, there is no rejection. He thinks I did not see him or whatever. I'm not interested at that moment to dance.

A member of DF asked me if I would make a video showing the various ways that milongueros initiate an invitation in the BsAs milongas. It's in the planning stages.
 
Would it be possible that you mixed up the links (the vids)? I only find Murat and the vid also ends before 8:30.


jantango said:
Cristina Ladas does not know how the cabeceo is used in Buenos Aires, so she should not be giving any instructions..
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As far as I know, Christina does not teach folklore, her focus lies on dance technique. I had two workshops with Christina and Homer and I was satisfied.
 
I'm not talking about Chacarera (a folk dance of Argentina), but the cabeceo, a custom in every club de barrio, confiteria, and dance salon in BsAs since the 1940s.

Anyone teaching tango anywhere in the world should know about and teach the codes and customs of tango.

Glad you were satisfied with their workshops, but it won't help you one bit if you are a social dancer and want to dance in BsAs.
 
Americans are known around the world for their deep knowledge of, and respect for, the customs of other countries and cultures. Aren't they?
 
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