My first tango shoes
Shoe Diva Contributor: Anastasia
Hello dear tangoshoesdivas!
I guess I’m one of you now 
I’m dancing only six months now but I’m absolutely hooked on tango shoes.
My first experience with tango shoes occurred in Sitges tango festival this year when I saw Comme il faut selling their shoes. There I saw these gorgeous shoes, ones I always dreamt of…. They were absolutely stunning, I tried them on, they fit perfectly and look soooo sexy on my legs. I payed 140 EUR without even thinking that I never spent that amount of money on one pair of shoes. I put them on immediately and once I had them on me, someone invited me to dance. After 5 seconds I realized I can not dance with them 
((( I guess the heel was too high for me (9 cm) and the open cage didn’t helped either. Off course I couldn’t give them back because I already worn them on a floor. So now I use them as a show off shoes when my friends come to visit me and that’s all.
Well, here comes my question: Do you think I will use them someday, maybe when I will be more stable and secure my self on the dance floor? Maybe more experience will help me? Or I’m just kidding my self and I’m doomed to wear low heels forever. I just have to mention that I don’t have any special problems with my feet (knock on wood…). Anyone?
I think you probably need to work yourself up to a 9cm heel. That’s just about as high as you can go in tango shoes and to go straight to that would be a feat for anyone, I think.
However, as a person who due to foot problems can mostly only wear lower heels (below 7cm), why would you say that if you wear low heels you are supposedly automatically a beginner, or doomed or only beginners wear low heels?
I would advise if you like Comme Il Faut, to try the lower 7cm heels and maybe try the 8cm ones out too for awhile and then work up to high 9cm heels you have. That’s what other people I have known have done.
You may find you just don’t like your shoes that high. A lot of people don’t and it doesn’t mean you can’t dance well if you don’t like 9cm heels. Shoe heel height is not an indication of a person’s dance ability.
Comment by
bastet — October 22, 2009 @ 7:07 am
Also- since you only wore them briefly, and they should be nearly new, you ought to be able to sell them for a pretty good price and use the money to buy a new pair in one of the “lower” high heels (8cm or 7cm) to get yourself used to dancing in high heels before moving up to the highest of them. (There is a learning curve for it.)
Comment by
bastet — October 22, 2009 @ 7:17 am
Thank you for your reply.
I’m totally agree with you on that the heel height is not an indication of a person’s dance ability. I didn’t meant it to sound like this… I know some amazing tangueras that dance on low heel. I just want to understand why I dance much better with low heels and what makes a woman dance good on those high heels? In other words: what can I do in order to learn to dance on high heels? What you said makes sense. I’ll try to work myself to 9 cm heel. For now I will buy some 7 cm heel shoes. I’m searching those right now. I’m thinking of tango wear, I saw some beautiful shoes there and I like that they make them custom made. I also want to sell my Comme il Faut but I don’t know how as we have very small tango community here.
Comment by
Anastasia — October 22, 2009 @ 3:01 pm
I have a pair of 3.5 inch Tara Tango Shoes that I bought about 1 year into my dancing… I put them away in favor of 3 inch and 3.5 inch with a platform for YEARS thinking I would never dance in shoes with that high a heel. I now dance primarily in 4 inch CiF (9 cm) and 3.5 inch (8 cm) when I get tired.
So no, there is definitely hope. I do a lot of standing pilates work (focusing on specific lower calf muscles) and core conditioning. The side benefit to this is that I now have less foot and knee pain than I did when I was dancing in lower heels. It definitely won’t come immediately, and shoes that high aren’t for everyone, but there is hope…
And Ebay is excellent for selling CiF as long as you are willing to ship!
Comment by
america — October 22, 2009 @ 3:16 pm
Yes! There is hope! I think I’ll kip my shoes though. I’m enjoying just look at them
Comment by
Anastasia — October 23, 2009 @ 3:16 am
Good- now you have a plan!
I think you could work up to them ever the period of some months.
Just be careful with Tangowear- what they list as a 3″ heel is actually the same as CIF 3.5″ heel (8cm) because they measure their heels up the front, not the back.
Comment by
bastet — October 23, 2009 @ 7:04 am
Well, give yourself some time, I mean, you just started dancing only a little bit ago. Work hard on that technique (like dancing on the balls of your feet? It too me awhile to get THAT memo) and dancing in high heels shouldn’t be that much of a problem.
It’s also trial and error for which shoes work best for you. There are always shoes that end up sitting on the shelf because turns out you can’t wear them that much. Personally, I love open toe slingbacks- but sometimes keyhole and closed toe shoes pinch my toes. So not too many of those in my closet.
Anyway, have fun!
Comment by
Sabrina — November 20, 2009 @ 8:18 pm