[Tango-L] BsAs Floorcraft - How is it really?

[Shahrukh Merchant]

"Trini y Sean \(PATangoS\)" <patangos at yahoo.com> says:

> Daniel describes navigating the floor as being like a chess game, with the men trying to find the space on the floor.  However, key to this is the men watching and signaling each other.
...
> Daniel relates stories of playing this game with other men while in BsAs.

Never seen this or heard of it, other than in the showmanship kind of 
situation at a performance that you describe, or possibly two friends 
bumping into each other (literally) on the dance floor and engaging in a 
friendly exaggerated courtesy play.

Otherwise, the only male-to-male "cabeceo-like" exchanges on the dance 
floor is when there is a collision of some sort and is either a dirty 
look or an apologetic look (depending more on the temperament of the 
persons involved rather than on the specific circumstances).

Other than that, the serious dancers are (properly) focussed on their 
partners and the music and of course also have (or should have) a 
general awareness of the space, movement and traffic around them, but 
certainly not at the level of *explicit* negotiation of space with other 
dancers that you describe.

Maybe it's just a pedagogical trick to get the students to pay attention 
to the existence of the other dancers? That would not be a bad thing. :-)

> Perhaps those currently in BsAs can give this aspect of navigation a try at the milongas?

I'm not sure how I would. I would have to break whatever connection I 
might have with my partner, trying to get the attention of other dancers 
who are likely ignoring me (for better or worse) at least at the level 
of explicit communication, with perhaps only a 1/10 chance that they are 
actually looking sufficiently in my direction that I am even in their 
field of view.

Might have made for an entertaining class, or be good cross-training for 
cabeceo, perhaps, but it's not a realistically useable (or used) technique.

Referring to your comment earlier in the post:

> It made me think that the dance-only-in-your-lane was an artificial construct that relies too much on people obeying the rules (which assumes that everyone knows and follows the rules).

Well, "dance-only-in-your-own-lane" is somewhat oversimplified, though I 
can see it could be a good practice drill in a class, but regardless, 
isn't the definition of social behaviour (which is surely what is called 
for at a milonga) "an artificial construct [which socialization attempts 
to make feel natural] that relies [indeed sometimes 'too much'] on 
people obeying the rules?" (Sorry for that difficult-to-navigate 
sentence! :-))

> Rather the real problem is the leaders not paying attention to what's happening on the dance floor.

Not much to disagree with there!

Shahrukh