I do agree with Callista, my wording of dominance would probably have been better described as looking more confident and or stubborn than him, and making it clear to him that I am not going to play in the way he wants to when he presents in certain ways - like going to jump at my head. The eye gaze I used was not lengthy but enough not to be either friendly or submissive. I have a very confident cat and until last week I had never seen him frightened of anything: it seems he is not at all happy about the crying noise from the new (6 week old) baby that lives in our block of flats when she's carried past outside our door. She seems to hate being carried up all the stairs! (Cats don't really have a strong drive to dominate anybody. I mean, they don't really have a pack like dogs do; there's no alpha in a group of cats. There are cats who are better at getting their own way; there are cats that are more demanding. But dominance? Not really, not in solitary hunters. With a cat, you have to either negotiate and form a compromise, or simply prove to the cat that you are the more stubborn and in that particular matter are going to have your way. Cats aren't dogs. They can be pretty willful and stubborn, and you can get them to do what you want, but you're only going to get them to do that one particular thing. They're not going to acknowledge you as dominant because they don't understand "dominant". It's not part of the way they live. If both cats want the choice window spot, they may share it, or one cat may bully the other cat out of it, but that's not going to settle who gets the first treat or who gets to perch on top of the refrigerator.
Staring at a cat is aggressive and overstimulating. A more polite way is to look briefly, then look away or blink slowly. That says, "I am here. I know you are here. I seek peaceful coexistence." It is a cat's version of a smile, to glance and then look away.
I guess it's a bit of a fine distinction. There are cats who rule the roost in their household, getting their own way most of the time. But these cats aren't true dominant cats, not like a dog would be. They are just more confident or persistent or sneaky. Other cats don't recognize their dominance. They don't think, "This is the top cat in the house." They just think, "I have to give in when this cat wants the window spot."
When you train a cat, your best bet is more like communication or negotiation than, as you would with dogs, establishing yourself as a trustworthy leader. Convince the cat, "It is in your best interest to do this when I want you to do it," or, "I am stubborn enough that you won't get away with doing that," and the cat will listen. Just remember that a cat will not obey what you want when you are out of sight. When you are not there, as far as your cat is concerned, what you want doesn't matter, because you are not there to get upset about it. And by the time you get back, the cat has no way of knowing what you are angry about. When you don't like what a cat is doing to you, though, you don't have to worry about that, since obviously there's no opportunity to do it when you're gone.
With the possible exception of kitten-and-mother, a cat is incapable of seeing anyone else as anything other than an equal. If you want something from a cat, you have to convince the cat to do it. You can't demand things just because you're the human and the cat is a cat. Humans are social animals, in the sense that we psychologically need and naturally form social structures. Cats are not social in the same way. For a human, social interaction is the center of life. For a cat, social interaction is an interesting diversion. When they socialize, it's because they want to, not because they need to.
I think I've been rambling on a bit. Oh well... serves me right, staying up 'til 2 a.m. I should get some sleep.
Asterix000, when Mouse is over excited and I remove him from the room I do have to shut him out of the room I am in otherwise he too would simply keep repeating- though probably not so much as your little darling. If he does do it again the removal and door shutting is repeated - I'm sure how long each cat needs to calm or distract varies but I don't see it as a punishment, simply a calming and distracting measure that we can move on from (or enables me to finish a task safely if I have to). I think he prefers to be able to see what's going on and hates being shut out of rooms so this seems to be a motivator for him to calm down too. I wholeheartedly agree with the general themes on this site - understanding and knowing what motivates your cat and giving positive rewards tends to be the best way to develop trusting and compatible living arrangements. It's just that not becoming a quivering, timid wreck before you've figured out that first bit can be challenging at times!