Mirada. The Spanish word “Mirada” comes from the root Spanish verb, “Mirar”, which when translated into English means “Look”. When we add the -‘ada’ ending to the -ar verb, it changes the meaning to the past tense as though we had ended the same word in English with an ‘ed’. So “Look” becomes “Looked”. And that’s exactly what this word means from an Argentine Tango perspective, “Looked”. In specific, this is a practice that is Follower, not Lead, specific. A Follower can and will engage in this methodology to make their intention known to a Lead that they’re available for dancing if the Lead would like to invoke a Cabeceo! Put simply, when a Follower invokes “Mirada”, they’re saying to a specific Lead, “I want to dance with you”. It is not a question. Frequently the idea of Mirada is confused with Cabeceo, that the Follower is ‘asking’ for a dance, which wouldn’t exactly be accurate. It is more a statement, more than anything else.