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Low Heels

This isn’t rocket science. It’s pure fact. Lower heels for the Follower aren’t exactly the sexiest things in the world. All the attention is on the High Heel and the shape of the foot, calf, and thigh that the high heel generates as a result. The Low heel ? Not so much with that. It’s like the poor cousin, ne’er do-well that comes close but not quite. Uuuugh.

However, there are some things you should realize about the Low Heel.

1.) While the High Heel gets all the attention, it’s not the healthiest thing you could do to your body. It puts undue strain on the nerves of the foot, it creates pressure for the bones for long periods of time that the foot was not designed for. The Low Heel does NOT do this. Because it’s low, the shape of the shoe and the shape of the foot, the impact of stress and pressures on the foot is far less, so therefore it stands to reason that the foot can handle the strains and pressures longer in lower heels.

2.) While the High Heel comes in all sorts of colors, shapes, sizes, and styles…the Low Heel does as well! Just because they’re low doesn’t mean that they don’t sell! They do. Quite frequently.

3.) A good low heel usually has good, if not better padding than the higher heel. This statement is subjective. The reality is that the shoes are made exactly the same way. The only difference is height of the heel and as a result the shape of the arch support. Other than that, the shoes are identical.

4.) You can learn to dance in Low Heels the same way that you dance in High Heels. Actually, truth be told, you can create a more desirable learning environment for yourself by starting out in Low Heels and then when you feel ready you can start your High Heel training. What the Low Heel does is create a stepping stone for the Follower to start their heel work so that they can make a slow, but steady transition into the Higher Heels.

5.) High Heels, Low Heels, the price is usually the same for the shoe. Don’t expect because they’re lower heels that you should pay less for the shoe. The workmanship is the same. The materials are the same. Why would you believe that you should pay less for them ?

6.) While it may sound like the Lower Heel are like training wheels, they’re not. The same work is required in High Heels as it is in Lower Heels or Flats for that matter. The techniques are exactly the same. The only difference is the balancing point, and of course your equilibrium, and learning to manage the same stuff in ever-increasing heights. So just because the heels are low to the ground does not mean that instantly everything is easier. No. It’s the same amount of work. Just a different perception of height!

7.) Believe it or not there are quite a few of the Older Milongueras that danced exclusively in lower heels because they knew they were more comfortable. Not. That’s a fallacy. The reality is that the High Heel in Tango is a recent invention. The Low Heel was the staple of Argentine Tango for DECADES! 😉

8.) The stem of the Lower Heel is usually bigger, and that tends to make the shoe slightly more heavy. However that doesn’t need to be the case. The shoe can be made with a slightly less heavy stem and still be ‘low’.

9.) The fallacy that only old ladies wear these things is just that…a fallacy.

10.) At the end of the day, it’s a shoe to put on your foot, and if it makes you comfortable and you can dance, then there’s nothing wrong with that. Don’t hate just because it’s a lower heel. Don’t judge because it’s a lower heel.

MORE REMINDERS

Dancing In Berlin

Berlin is known for many reasons around the world, it’s culture, it’s Berlin accent of German, it’s fact as a post-cold war city, and most recently the financial capital of Europe. Tango was certainly not on that list. If however, you happen to be a Tango dancer, and at a very specific place in your dance, then you have heard Yoda-like whispers of “Berlin…you should go to Berlin…”. There’s a reason for those whispers, which has turned into ‘talk’. It’s because there is a reason for all the ‘fuss’ over Tango in Berlin.

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Talking While Dancing

Tango is a ‘Social’ dance. Meaning that the whole reason you are there is to hang out, meet new people, and to be social with each other. The dancing part is what brings us together but it’s really about being a social creature. That’s why it’s called a ‘Social’ dancing. Social in this case means talking and sharing your day or what’s been going on with you. Mostly it’s lots of talking, sharing, listening, and more talking.

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Saying ‘No’.

So without further variance, below is a 10 step process in “How to say ‘No’, and not dance with Y!” 🙂

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Perfectionism

There are those of us that separate being ‘good’ as being good enough, and anything beyond that is just ‘unnecessary’. It’s really about getting around the floor, and if no one complains about the embrace, or you don’t hit anything, or anyone, and you can throw in that cool move now and again, so much the better!

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Tango Frustration

Contrary to what you may have heard, the reality of Tango for some people is, as a Lead as well as a Follow, is not all happy and lovely. The fact is that some of those dancers go to the Milonga knowing that they are going to sit, a lot. And that sitting leads a winding path through a host of emotions that ultimately lands them on the door step of Tango Frustration.

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The Neurology of Leading – Part 2

A question that comes up for some leads, not all leads, but some Leads (big ‘L’) is why is it important that you spend a lot of time listening to Tango music, and more importantly to mark the music ? Typically you’ll hear this question as “I have a life you know ? I have things to do. I can’t sit around all day long just listening to song after song after song for days, weeks, months, marking up every song in some crazy 8 count beat sort of way, and then try to memorize all that all so….

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Getting To Buenos Aires

You’ve been dancing for a while, and you keep seeing these posts about Buenos Aires. Your dream has slowly developed to go to Buenos Aires, to experience for yourself what all the fuss is about. First there’s the dancing, you’ve heard it’s the best. There’s the shoes! OMG the shoes. Then there are friends that have been and rave about teacher X or Milonga Y. You’ve see the videos of performances at Salon Canning (but didn’t know it was Salon Canning), the pictures from Milongas, and thought to yourself that it didn’t look all that challenging than your local milonga there are just more people. You’ve heard that Spanish isn’t necessarily a requirement because there’s a lot of foreigners that speak English, and a good portion of the teachers speak it too. So you if you went, you wouldn’t really need to learn Spanish. 

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Architecture

Architecture. There are certain things we want to do with our bodies in relation to Argentine Tango and Social Dancing, one of them is to ‘close our fingers’ or bring our fingers together in every possible place where we lay our hands on our partners or they come into contact with our partner’s bodies.

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The Bloody Toe

The fact is that while open toed shoes can be lovely to look at, they have a practical downside that no one likes to talk about – one wrong move and you’re lookin’ at a serious injury!

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1.) Free Users get to see 5 of the 125 Different Tango Topics on the site. Plus you get access to the entire Tango Reminders and Tango Ideas sections of the site. These are short form Topic descriptors with a little detail about the topic and the video.

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Keep something in the back of your mind: What you’re seeing in a youtube video is a couple that is performing for the 15th row for a room full of people. They’re not social dancingWhereas this website is all about ‘Social Tango’  or how to make things function on a social dance floor. Social Dance floor ? Your local milonga! They are showing you flashy moves as a presentation, to show off! But not stopping and talking about how this works which is what you need to see. This website and all of it’s content show you the how and  why you’d want to put that piece of vocabulary there, or how to make things work. This website is all about those things and more!

You could watch Tango YouTube videos and thereby spend your time, trying to infer, and figure out how things may work in that particular situation. Bend your body this way or that, twist and force this position or that. Place your foot here or there and figure it out. This is known as Tango Twister.  Which can be a lot of fun, but more than likely it won’t help you, because you’re missing something: The explanation from an experienced teacher showing you how to properly excute this stuff from a Leading Perspective as well as from a Following Perspective!

The goal of YouTube videos is to get you to study with those teachers in person. The goal of Tango Topics videos allows you to work at your own pace, in the comfort of your own space, so that you can play them over and over again to improve your understanding of the vocabulary or technique being described to therefore better your dancing experience. The goal of classes and workshops is to get you to come back over and over and over again, thereby spending more money with that teacher. This website and the videos under it are here to act as a resource for you to help you to improve your dance. Pay once and you’re done.

Eventually, one way or another you’re going to pay for this lesson, either here and now, or with them. TANSTAAFL! The difference between that lesson and this ? Is that you get to play this lesson over and over and over again. Further still, there are supporting materials (other videos) that help to explain the language and the underlying technique of how and why things work, so you can easily reference those things in the corresponding articles that go with the material, and or any language in the Tango Topics Dictionary. 

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