Rose, this is one of the things that could happen, not only in Salon Canning. The eye contact for dancing is not a general guideline, men could tap you in the shoulder from behind, or rather come in front of you and invited to dance.
If you like mysteries, I hope you have noticed there is a tree growing out through a window, two houses nearby salon canning . This tree seems to be left on his own when the owner died ( a priest that have the church in front of this house , also closed) that is a mystery, how the tree could manage to find the light and grow as big as it is now . It has been used for an advertising spot of soft drink warm regards alberto ----- Mensaje original ---- De: "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Para: tango-l@mit.edu Enviado: martes 4 de diciembre de 2007, 18:23:28 Asunto: [Tango-L] Buenos Aires Mystery Hi everybody, this is my first post, though I've been reading the list for several months. I've really enjoyed the wealth of information and experience here...as well as all the drama surrounding it! I'm a relative newbie (dancing for about 1 ½ years) and recently returned from my first trip to Buenos Aires. I had a wonderful time, but one thing happened that mystified me, and I'm hoping you can shed some light. I had been to a few milongas in town already, danced my little heart out, and found everything to more or less fit my expectations. Then one night, I went to Salon Canning. I was with a friend I had met in Buenos Aires, not a local but a Mexican man who spends a month of every year there working on his technique, knows a lot of people and is a very good dancer. My friend had reserved a table, and we were seated at the outer edge, next to an adorable local couple who'd been married over 50 years and had gone there to hear a little music. It was around midnight, and the live music hadn't started yet. The floor was fairly full but not crowded yet. My friend went to change his shoes and pay his respects to various important people, and other than chatting with the nice older couple, I was careful not to make eye contact with anybody. It was my first time there, I didn't know the crowd or the floor, and I wanted my first tanda to be with my friend. This is where the mystery began. Within a few minutes of my friend leaving me at our table, a man tapped me on my shoulder, from behind. When I looked around he asked me to dance. I was quite taken aback and explained apologetically (in my bad Spanish) that I was saving my first dance for the gentleman I had arrived with, at which point this man fell all over himself apologizing for having asked. In the 10 minutes my friend was gone, this happened twice more, each time being tapped from behind and verbally invited to dance, and each time the man was extremely apologetic, even mortified, when I declined (always by explaining I was saving the first dance for my gentleman friend). What gives? I would be tempted to write them off as clueless Americans, but they didn't appear to be such, which is to say, they were all quite charming and reserved, well groomed, wearing nice suits, and native Spanish speakers. (No offense intended to my fellow clueless Americans, but I hope you know what I mean, and of course you are not all clueless.) One of them used the word “sorry” in English but beyond that it was all Porteno-accented Spanish (as far as my untrained ear could distinguish). As I had just arrived, these men had no way of knowing whether I could dance my way out of a paper bag. Is it possible there were some other women there that these men were hoping to impress, so they were going to take any old newcomer (me) for a spin just so they could display their wares and move on to the women they wanted to win dances with? Up to this point (at the other milongas I'd already visited in town) I'd been quite charmed by the cabeceo, and felt a little thrill every time I got the nod. But this was something else entirely, and sort of put me on edge. What is the proper response (if there is one) when such a thing happens? I'd hate to step on anyone’s toes (so to speak) but I also don't want to perpetuate bad manners. Did they have bad manners? Did I have bad manners? Is it assumed that this is how one must ask foreigners (me) to dance, who might not know the customs? Even if that is the case, why would they want to dance with someone who'd just arrived (me), who might turn out to be a menace on the dance floor? I tried to discuss it with my kindly table neighbors, but either my Spanish was insufficient or they did not consider it worthy of comment, as they just rolled their eyes and waved their hands. I hope it will be found worthy of comment here, maybe with a little eye rolling and hand waving thrown in for excitement. Many thanks. Holly Rose, Berkeley **************************************Check out AOL's list of 2007's hottest products. 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