Tango Shoe Divas

This past year was the year I decided to go back to wearing open toe shoes. I don’t know why I ever stopped, except that needing lower heels, I never had many choices about the shape of the front of the shoe before and didn’t really think that much about it until late 2008.

I am seriously hoping that 2010 will see some changes and  hopefully more tango shoe manufacturer’s broaden their somewhat narrow outlook of this aspect: “low heel shoes means closed/peep toe”.

I am glad Greta Flora broke this mold- and good on them. I know a couple of other brands like Tango Brujo, Nueva Epoca and Darcos also make pretty, open toe, lower heeled shoes so good for them too!

In 2009, I was determined to decrease my foot pain so I ruthlessly sold most of my higher heels and switched to lower ones. Unfortunately, this didn’t really help much and I was convinced it was just about time to give up dancing before I crippled myself, but got a chance to pre-order some low heeled open toe Greta Flora shoes from Kathleen at Diva-Boutique. (She’s great by the way.) The shoes were great; my feet mostly forgave me and now I can continue dancing.

So I scrimped and saved, taught private lessons on my days off, did special orders when I didn’t really want to and sold ALL but one pair of the shoes I had previously bought  (9 pairs), including my 2 pairs of Comme Il Faut, I’m sad to say, and have been slowly replacing them when I get a chance and find something that will work.

Here’s what I have now:

There are 2 pairs of Greta Flora, soon to be 3- a special order (oh no) directly from them that hasn’t gone well (what a surprise). There is one pair of Nueva Epoca, a pair of Darcos and a new pair of Jorge Nel’s. The raspberry pair (middle of the second pic) I bought in 2008, sort of a harbinger of things to come.

Now  a quick review.

Greta Flora- Overall, I love Greta Flora. The neutral pair required about 1 hr break in. Theya re very soft, shape to my toes and I can dance for hours in them. The black/red pair has potential but is a bit stiffer and tighter, I’ll probably need to have them stretched a little. The 3rd pair (more later as it will need it’s own story) is on its way from Argentina.

Nueva Epoca-The model I got is “Palma”. Carmen at Carmen’s Dance shoes has them on sale right now. Apparently the price is going up so I don’t know that I’ll buy them again with the new pricing, but if you can catch a sale, Nueva Epoca is good. Carmen is easy to deal with and returns are simple. They are flexible, comfortable, quality materials that aren’t stiff and are nicely made. I had 1/4″ taken off the Palma model to bring them closer to 2.5″ .They are actually 3″ up the back and not the 2 3/4″ listed. (The higher models have the height up the back posted so I am not sure why the lower heel ones don’t do the same.)

The Palma model I got is actually metallic purple (not the posted patent) with a iridescent pleated satin front- quite pretty! Lined in pale gold. I wore them for New Years and didn’t even bung up the metallics.

Jorge Nel- I got the raspberry pair in 2008 and added some trim (can’t help myself on that). They are comfortable, with a 3″ heel (up the back). They’re also rock solid stable.

So I special ordered the purple pair (yes, purple is my “black”) with the silver and black  star back…yes…note to self…stop doing that in 2010…The purple pair turned out nice on the surface. The suede is nice and the lining is soft, but he made them about 1/2 size too long for my foot (and he measured my feet himself!) and I just can’t get used to his heel placements (too far towards my heel). Overall- I’d only continue to get Jorge Nel shoes at a festival, where you can get a bit better price and try them out first.

Once bitten on special order shoes, twice shy, but 3 times I’m just dumb! So my resolution for 2010 is to NOT special order shoes from ANYONE and only buy from people whom I can return an item that doesn’t fit properly.

Since I started leading I have discovered an new problem. I need more shoes. Stop laughing. Seriously. I have ONE pair of 3 inch heels and the rest are 3.5 and 4. For awhile I led in my “Go-To” following pair, but as I got serious I realized that I needed the grounding of a real pair of lead shoes. I bought a cheap pair of canvas ballroom shoes with a 1.75″ heel – they work ok, but they are UGLY, they truly offend the Shoe Diva in me. I have also bought a couple of pairs of street shoes with varying results (one pair I really like, but they are gold, and I find myself having to constantly find new clothes to go with them because I wear them so much).

These are what I’ve been trying to lead in:

Additionally I think about occasionally going out for some swing dancing. Guess what? I don’t have any swing dance shoes either. Can you imagine me trying to Lindy Hop in 4″ CiF? Could someone call an orthopedic surgeon and keep him on hold? (I HAVE done it in 3″ Jorge Nel shoes however – the swing dancers thought I was nuts… They were probably right.)

So here is a list of my demands:
Ideal lead height <2"
Chunky Heel for stability
Looks ok with a skirt (Dance sneakers look ridiculous on me)
Cute enough to be my primary swing shoe
A platform would be really nice (with a 2-2.5" heel would be awesome)
Can I dream that I could follow in them?

I am getting desperate. I'm teaching. I'm leading. I dance 5+ days a week. And dammit, I want to go swing dancing! It was getting to the point that I had been toying with the idea of sucking it up and buying some Jorge Nel (my negative association with my JN shoes is actually what inspired me to start this site). I actually kind of like these but with this heel (The picture on the left, I’m imagining them in silver leather with maybe a black or grey mesh). But I was really disappointed to find that he doesn’t offer a platform option (of course the platform is part of what caused the problem last time…). He does offer these in virtually unlimited colors (picture on the right) but by the time I get a platform, arch support and proper padding they would be $150… Ouch!

Desperate times call for Jorge Nel?

I was heading that direction, but salvation is at hand!

Reviewing comments here, I realized I might be making a logical error. Stop trying to make tango shoes work for swing, make swing shoes work for tango… Enter Aris Allen. Now I don’t know all that much about swing shoes (it’s been at least 5 years since I went swing dancing!), but I have done some looking around and these seem to be the brand. Long ago, before the explosion of tango shoes, I had considered getting some Bleyer swing shoes as a comfortable practice alternative, but they seem to have disappeared (thank you weak dollar and crashing economy…)

So this is my current frontrunner:

It’s no CiF, but I think it might fit the bill. It has a leather sole, a platform and the heel height is perfect (2.25 – .5 inch platform). And it is only $90 with all the options! Anyone want to tell me that it is the most hideous thing ever? Because if you don’t talk me out of it those babies will be here, hopefully before the next time we have practice.

There are a bunch of oxford styled shoes, but there are some others that I think would be good with skirts:

Closed Back Wedge, funky but kind of cool…

Mary Jane (no platform on this one, but I like the look)
Rug Cutter – I like this style, but I have gold shoes that I like for now.

Hmmm. It is hard for me to buy sensible shoes, but these are looking pretty good, all things considered… Anyone want to tell me that I am crazy?