[Tango-L] Cabeceo, again

[TangoDC.com]

Chris,

Yes, yes, yes-- I've said that the cabeceo is body language too. But as 
Astrid points out, different cultures have different conventions 
(compare cartoon expressions in US and Japanese comic books, if you want 
another starkly obvious example), and it's worthwhile to point these 
things out. In many American cities, especially DC, we've got cultural 
stew already, and so a "follow me" nod of the head Does need to be 
explained. Certain gestures, or "tones" of gesture, are even vulgar or 
else polite within the frame of a single culture. These cultures aren't 
imaginary: they're present in the people in my classes and at milongas. 
In consequence, the cabeceo is not as stone-age simple as you'd like 
everyone to believe. The *action* of the cabeceo is perhaps natural; its 
*meaning*, however, is a construct, which (like every word in every 
language on earth) is influenced by CONTEXT.

This is elementary semiotics. Perhaps the drawer in your mind labeled 
"Obvious, The" has room for it.

As a teacher, and a man with a brain, I make it my business to increase 
knowledge and promote creativity. I can teach young dancers the "cabeceo 
game" in DC in five minutes, and it might take two years to spread to 
Los Angeles-- precisely because the environment here in the US does not 
make it necessary or even effective.

Furthermore, using gestures when speech is the available option implies 
something in itself. The nod, done with the wrong tone, or in the wrong 
context, or to someone who isn't In on the custom, could imply "Let's go 
outside" or "I've got good drugs" or "Whatever you charge for an hour, I 
can afford it." Have you no imagination? Has your world no ambiguity?

Again, let me add that the generation gap multiplies uncertainties 
again, even within one culture. Take two strangers. An older man nods at 
a young girl: neither is perfectly certain of the meaning of this 
message. They both hope it's the cabeceo. But let's not be myopic. As 
dancers, we also represent the tango to an unfamiliar public, and the 
tango has a certain reputation. To an outside observer just stopping to 
watch (we have these mysterious beings in DC), this gesture between the 
older man and the girl could mean any number of horrible things, many of 
which are legal in Amsterdam. We might do well to think less egocentrically.

My teaching, for its part, hasn't met with any actual resistance yet, 
but thanks for the implied tip on what to do when I encounter a bona 
fide idiot.

And thanks for your helpful contribution. You're really carrying this 
discussion forward, and raising new topics of value for people to think 
about.

Jake Spatz
Washington, DC


Chris, UK wrote:

Dani writes:

  

> People talk about "learning it"...?????! Learning WHAT?!... learning 
> to do what we all do naturally and amthropologically every day of our 
> lives? 
>     

Yup. Sad, or what?

Rather like evening classes in making love. Where the only required 
qualification for successful teaching is the ability to persuade others 
that they need the lessons.

You'd think that need too would have died out by natural selection, 
wouldn't you? ;)

Yet spatz at tangoDC.com writs:

  

> Even if all us teachers did our best to teach the cabaceo, it would 
> still be two years or so before you'd see the impact on the social 
> scene. I'll do my part as often as I can.
>     

If the social scene is so resistant to what all you teachers are trying 
their best to feed it, surely that indicates something about the 
appropriateness of how you are teaching and what you are teaching.

Please do not tell me this isn't stark staringly obvious.

Chris







-------- Original Message