After eleven years living, dancing, teaching tango, and writing in Buenos Aires, I came home to L.A. in 2014, where I'm reconstructing my life.

Monday, September 08, 2008

You Can't Tango in Any Old Shoes

Why do the words tango shoes have such impact, such a sexy connotation? Much more than salsa shoes or ballroom pumps? Maybe dancing slippers has a whammy, but of a different, "Cinderella," sort, unless the love of your life happens to be drinking champagne out of them.

“If you danced like that with someone in the nightclub scene,” said Russell Buckingham, a painter and club impresario talking about tango, “you would go home with them,” quotes the New York Times in You Can't Tango in Any Old Shoes. So maybe it's the dance more than the shoes.

Blogs and websites are devoted to tango shoes, and goodness knows, tons of different models are for sale on the internet, at dance festivals, and along Suipacha in Buenos aires. Tango shoes inspired my own post about My Sexy Shoes. (There are also lots of kinky blogs and fashion blogs just about shoes, but that's a whole other topic.)

But generally with tango shoes, it's the women talking, or men admiring the women wearing tango shoes. Some women even go so far as to say they dance tango for the shoes. I've never heard a guy declare such a thing.

Here are a couple of men's tango shoes from Darcos:







I wouldn't call these sexy, but they do make a statement.

Actually you can dance tango in any old shoes, but who would want to?

5 comments:

Elizabeth Brinton said...

Oh those are funny shoes.
I Love my Comme Il Faut shoes now. I was unsure for a long time but I realize now how well balanced they are. It is all about where the heel is, and how you can be grounded while wearing a high heel. I have almost a shrine to them in my closet...a place waiting (impatiently) for silver snakeskin, as yet to be found. They become so important when we realize how far they take us....

miss tango said...

Those shoes are criminally ugly!

NYC Tango Pilgrim said...

Now Cherie,

Can you tell me where I can get a matching outfit for these shoes? :-)

Elizabeth Brinton said...

nyc TP:
Maybe you could find the outfit at Barnum and Bailey?
E

tangocherie said...

Elizabeth, maybe you can order silver snakeskin CIF's!

Well, TP, as for your question, you'd have to ask the guy I saw last night at Los Consagrados in bright orange cargo pants and tee shirt. Only these Darcos shoes were wanting.