[Tango-L] Ghandi and the cabaceo

[Valerie Dark]

On Mon, Nov 23, 2009 at 10:11 PM, Anton Stanley <anton at alidas.com.au> wrote:
> The cabeceo gives ultimate power to the woman to refuse a dance without
> publicly injuring the ego or dignity of the suitor. Why is it such a
> problem for Western women to practice it? >

The whole cabaceo discussion is academic, at least in North America.
Are you in Australia, Anton? Do people use the cabaceo where you are?

In North America, there are a few people who try to do it, but it
isn't practiced uniformly. It is't that Western women have a
particular hard time doing it. It's simply hard for anyone to do it
unless everyone does it.

Remember in the climax of the movie "Ghandi" when the whole country
suddenly laid down their arms and practiced non-violent resistence all
at once? You'd need something like that here to get the cabaceo
adopted.

Even if you do want to cabaceo between partners, it's hard to do here.
For one thing, people don't clear the floors for cortinas. That means
partners can't find one another by sight from a distance. Where I am,
there is no reserved seating in milongas and never enough chairs for
everyone in attendance. We just don't conceive of a milonga like the
ones in B.A. Without a "home base" to return to after dancing,
everyone mills around and hooks up for dances by walking up to each
other. A few dancers "in the know" try to practice a cabaceo mutation
by walking up to someone and, instead of sticking out the hand,
nodding from a distance of approximately 2-and-a-half feet. It's a
cabaceo in form, if not function.

It's a cultural difference that can't be bridged here. It would
require a country to decide, spontaneously, to be different!

Valerie

--
Cryptic Ember - The tango blog of Valerie Dark
http://crypticember.blogspot.com