Tango Shoes - take care of your feet!
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Well the title says it all Tango us supposed to be a fun thing to do, so make sure that your feet always enjoy it by using good shoes. Classic Leather shoesLeather is very good for the sole (no jokes) as you might like to pivot when dancing tango on smooth floors (as a leader or follower), and leather works well on wooden and stone floors. Make sure that the leather sole supports your foot in a comfortable way and is thick enough to give your foot some cushioning. Also if the sole is thick then there is some capacity for the shoe to shape to your foot as you start to wear it. Wooden floors usually provide some spring and shock absorbancy for your feet, but good quality insoles can help. It is best if you do NOT rely upon insoles and train your feet a little for dancing to prevent any problems occurring. Typically you want the leather shoes to be slightly tight when you first try them on as the leather will stretch and shape to your feet as you start to wear them. DO wear your lovely new leather shoes without walking around in them or dancing, to let the shoes shape to your feet. For both following and leading shoes it is important to NOT have the sole sticking out beyond the dance shoe (making a rim), otherwise barridas, paradas and other foot to foot contact are a little difficult. For high heeled dancing shoes (typically used for following) the shoe heel needs to be situated squarely under the heel of your foot. The height of the heel is a personal decision, but you can try standing on the front of your foot, in bare feet, and see how high your heel is off the ground when you feel comfortable. This is probably the height of heel that will naturally suit your foot. Dance SneakersMore and more tango dancers are wearing dance sneakers of one type or another, and often of many different colours. |
Warning! some dance sneakers do not provide torsional (twisting) stability between the front of the
foot and the heel. This means that when your feet and leg muscles start to get tired there is a risk
of you twisting and damaging your feet as there is no torsional support. If you can bend the dance
sneaker around between the front and back then it is NOT good.
There are a lot of different dance sneakers around and new models are being released into the market all the time. Major manufacturers are: Make Your OwnThe final soltion is to make your own dance shoes/sneakers by finding a comfortable pair of shoes/sneakers and getting leather stuck onto the bottom of them. The best bond (I am reliably informed by shoe makers) is with leather to rubber, so try to find a pair of shoes/sneakers that you find comfortable and that have leather soles. I have a nice pair of tennis sneakers with leather stuck on the bottom of them - for practicing in when it is likely that I will have my feet kicked and stood on because of the fun things we are trying out. |
Dance shoe shops in Cambridge, the surrounding area and Berlin.