Signs she doesn't want to dance

OpenClipArt

At a salsa dance night, a guy whose eye I had been avoiding came to sit at the next table. I moved away.

If a woman is actively engaged in another activity - chatting, looking down, hunting in her bag, doing something on her phone, it could be deliberate. I have employed all these tactics, in fact all at the same milonga. It's usually because I don't like the music.

At some British milongas it is still thought OK to invite a woman to dance by walking up to her.  Women know all about keeping their eyes open if they want to dance. The harsh term “planchadora” refers to women who spend all night sitting, “ironing the seat”.  So much waiting means they are quick to notice if a guy wants to dance with them. So if women are not looking your way, it's probably because they don't want to dance with you or right then. A woman may very well not want to dance with you even if she has been sitting for a long time. Something is not necessarily better than nothing. A woman who does not look at guys or a guy at the start of a tanda, or in a bar, or anywhere for that matter, is likely making a point.