Cinderella's search
When I was in Buenos Aires in March 2013 I went shoe shopping. And I hate shopping. Period. Yet I had to comb the city, since I was looking to try out new brands of shoes, in the hope to find something stylish, comfortable and well padded.
I already knew that I can't wear Comme il Faut, because I have wide feet and high arches, and the Comme il Fauts feel as if half of my arch is hanging outside of the sole. So I didn't even bother.
I used to wear Neo Tango (Sarmiento 1938), which are wide enough for me, but in recent years their quality has gone down so much that I don't want to buy them anymore. I had to hammer flat the insole of the last pair I bought from them, because after a few months, it crunched up to build a little ball, that was hurting the bottom of my foot. I still went to the store and I tried on a few pairs, but didn't find them comfortable or padded enough.
From there to Raquel (Bolivar 554). I had seen the shoes during the "Ladies Festival" and spoken to what seemed to be the owner of the store - she kept saying that 'she' can make this or that change for me. The story was somewhat different when I went to the store, where I encountered only a slightly overworked saleswoman, who didn't even mention that any changes can be made at all. With some decisions I need help and if the salesperson had offered it, I would have probably bought shoes, since I liked how padded but flexible they were. I walked out empty-handed but I will go back next time.
After that I went to the Greta Flora's store in Palermo (Francisco Acuña de Figueroa 1612). There are two Greta Floras in town, but only the one in Palermo has tango shoes. I tried on quite some shoes that looked almost the same, but feel quite different due to the various types of leather, of which they are made. I managed to pick a pair of super low heels - my guess is that they are 5cm. I had never worn such a low heel, but the shoes turned out to be extremely comfortable. This was in March. Now, in November, I went and bought a different style of Greta Floras, also with a low heel. I found them super pretty, even though they were more closed on the front, than I usually wear, and with a closed back. So I wore them at the milonga the same night… Well, turns out that they are made for narrower feet, and since I had to get a bigger size than I usually wear, in order to fit in them comfortably, once I started dancing my feet started moving a little within the shoes, and getting scraped. By the end of the night I had blood in one shoe. With the expectation of mighty resistance, the next day I went to return the shoes. You should have seen my jaw dropping, when the sales associate didn't fight me, brought the shoes to her boss in the back room, and turned back a minute later saying that I can either pick another pair of shoes, or they can try to pad these for me, so that they don't scrape. They didn't have the type of low heel shoes that I wanted, so I ended up picking a pair, like the one I got in March, but with a 7cm heel. Still super comfortable.
Next on the list was Soy Porteña (Juan Domingo Perón 1610, Apt 5B). I have 2 pairs of their shoes - identical style and color but different hight heels - 9cm and 10cm. I really like the fit, since they are clearly made for wide feet, like mine. What I don't like is that a) they got beaten up very quickly - the silver got rubbed off within few months and now they look rather brownish -, and b) that they have no padding whatsoever. And I mean NON! After a week of dancing in them I put in one silicon insole, few months later I had to add a second one in an attempt to survive in them for 3-4 hours. Sadly, adding a second insole didn't work out, because I loose any grounding perched on top of 2 layers of insoles. I might bring them back here next time, and check if I can get a good insole built in. If not, I'll throw them away.
After Soy Porteña I went to Souple (Paraná 348, 2nd floor). They had styles that I liked and the shoes are very well padded. The saleswoman was not too happy that I wanted to try different styles in different sizes, and kept pushing me to buy shoes one size too small for me, with the explanation that I should try harder to push my foot into a shoe, in which there was not enough space for even 4 of my toes… So much about Cinderella, or at least her sister… After I got annoyed and said: "No! I am not doing this! I've been buying tango shoes for 13 years and know what fits me well!", she asked me if I were Russian, and even though I said "No" she became friendlier and more accommodating. Go figure! I was trying to decide between two gorgeous pairs - one tan colored and one orange. She pointed out that the tan colored ones get dirty really easily, so I picked the orange ones, and I've been in love with them for the last few months.
Next stop - Flabella (Suipacha 263). Here I had the same experience like last time - many salespeople, few clients and yet a very, very, very long waiting time. You can see the shoes only in the window display, which means that you have to go out with the sales person and point to the many pairs, and hope that she understands what you want. After spending over an hour there, torturing and getting tortured by the sales woman, she gave up and brought me all the shoes she had in my size. What can I say? Shoes only borderline stylish, and a saleswomen who keeps repeating how good they look on your feet - even the ugliest ones. My first two pairs of shoes from 13 years ago were Flabellas and I remember them being very comfortable. I wish shopping in this store was easier, and may be I would have given them another chance.
A year and a half ago I bought three pairs of Alanis shoes. They used to have a store in Palermo, which it is closed now. If they are still in business, they should be in the central store (Diagonal Norte 936), which was quite busy and the sales person stressed out. I don't like most of their styles, since they are angular on the front, and even though I managed to find shoes that I like, I now regret having bought them. Even the leather strap that holds my heel in place stretched on one pair, and now I can't wear them because the shoes hang loose off my foot. The other huts the nail bed of my big toe. In order to wear them I would need to have the placing of all straps, that cover the toes, changed… I got a lot of use only of the one pair that was custom made for me. I wouldn't buy them again, but I did get to wear them for a while. One of the heels did break off after I moon-walked in them, but I guess that's OK. :)
As I mentioned earlier, one particularity about my feet is that I have a very high arch, and that's why need insoles in most shoes. I have one pair of Artisenal shoes, which I never wear, because even with an insole, my arch doesn't manage to touch the bottom of the shoe… So far the only shoes that I have, that don't require insoles AND are still comfortable, are the Souple and the Greta Flora.
I also have one pair of DNI shoes (Bulnes 1011). Because of the placement of the straps, I had to buy a whole size bigger pair and then bring them to a shoe maker to cut the front. After that I had the soles changed, since it was rubber!!! I wouldn't buy them again, first because I had to spend too much money of fixing them to my foot, and second because now, with the chrome leather sole, they are even less flexible and I fee as if I am dancing inside the shoes, instead of with the shoes.
Sunday, November 24, 2013
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
The tango skill building
To me assessing the skill level of better tango dancers feels like looking up a building. May be you can see the difference in the make of the details a few floors above you, but you certainly can't see them 10 or 20 stories higher. On the other hand, you can clearly recognize every floor below you, since you've been there, you've walked it, and you've inspected it for a while. I have examined many floors in the 13.5 years of dancing tango only. I've tried out many things that didn't work out. I've taken classes with many teachers or refused to take classes, out of stupidity, ego, or because I knew better. I've bumped into many teachers who had a whole lot to give me, but either weren't saying the words that I was ready to hear at that moment, or were thinking about the dance in a too different way, or I couldn't connect what they were saying to what I was doing, and so I ended up not learning much from them. Nevertheless, I kept little boxes of knowledge from most of them, even though for many years those boxed were completely useless to me. But as I keep changing my dancing and discovering more things, I am finding myself understanding the knowledge from some of those boxes. I consider myself an autodidact for the most part, since for the above mentioned reasons I keep reinventing the wheel. I recognize only two of the many people with whom I studied as my mentors: Constanin Rueger - my first teacher, from whom I learned most of what I knew about tango for the first few years, and from whom I learned how to teach; and since last year - Horacio Godoy. May be, if in the interim I had found a teacher to suit my needs, I would have gotten all the information I need from her, and would have progressed much faster…, but even so, I am happy things worked out the way they did, because, since I am a teacher, I had to think about every single aspect of what I do and examine every single floor of that building with a magnifying class, and that sometimes even more than once.
In this blog I want to talk about followers, even though the same applies for leads, but it will be a mess to switch back and forth talking about the two.
Back to our building. For a while, when one sees better dancers one immediately recognizes the external differences - she does more steps than me, her boleos are higher, she embellishes better. (After a 1.5 years of dancing I couldn't for the life of me see any further differences between myself and the best dancer in Berlin, who had been dancing for 11 years at that time.) Later, as one keeps moving up the building, one starts paying attention to the ease with which those elements get executed, how stable and smooth the movements are, and how everything seems to end just where it needs to be - precision. Much, much, much later, I started being able to see how a great follower would express the music with her body. How the way she steps or embellishes reflects what she hears in the music. Sometimes, seldom, I can even see the tension and relaxation in her body. If I pay a lot of attention I can see the subtleness or her movements: how small of a signal with provoke a reaction; how perfectly she would absorb the energy to express a soft note; how the duration of her boleo will be perfectly timed to hit a certain something in the music; and how her leg will hover in the air, if the music "holds its breath"...
And then there is the whole universe of subtlety that we don't see. Has it happen to you to watch a couple dance, and she's obviously a good dancer, but you don't see anything so special about the ways she moves, that might explain why the guy dances the 10th tandas with her, or why he seems mesmerized? May be it was due to my limited talent or lessons, that it took 13 years and Horacio Godoy for me to be able to understand… But what I learned from him was that I shouldn't be able to see what enchants the lead?!?! If it's visible, it's too much. What it is, is a subtlety in the way one uses their body and hears the music - the way one breathes…, the way one can isolate and engage different muscles…, the way one can pick a note or two to skip or throw into the dance…, the way one is responsible for their own movement and can make suggestions, while melting into the music and the partner… Now I know that the only way to know this subtlety is to experience it. And experience it, when one is ready for it. After 13 years of dancing tango, Horacio told me in a private: "You should know you are good, since I am not working on walking with you." Really??? That's how "good" I am?!? And yet, he was right. If he had had to work with me on the mechanics of walking, instead of the expression of walking, I would have never been able to tap into that pool of subtlety, because I wouldn't have been ready. If he hadn't felt that I have explored all the floors I talked about, he would have known that I can't relax and submerge myself into the world of subtlety… But now I'm here - eyes wide open for the invisible, I am ready to explore the next floor! And I'm so excited about the marvels that the higher floors, which I can't even see yet, will bring.
To me assessing the skill level of better tango dancers feels like looking up a building. May be you can see the difference in the make of the details a few floors above you, but you certainly can't see them 10 or 20 stories higher. On the other hand, you can clearly recognize every floor below you, since you've been there, you've walked it, and you've inspected it for a while. I have examined many floors in the 13.5 years of dancing tango only. I've tried out many things that didn't work out. I've taken classes with many teachers or refused to take classes, out of stupidity, ego, or because I knew better. I've bumped into many teachers who had a whole lot to give me, but either weren't saying the words that I was ready to hear at that moment, or were thinking about the dance in a too different way, or I couldn't connect what they were saying to what I was doing, and so I ended up not learning much from them. Nevertheless, I kept little boxes of knowledge from most of them, even though for many years those boxed were completely useless to me. But as I keep changing my dancing and discovering more things, I am finding myself understanding the knowledge from some of those boxes. I consider myself an autodidact for the most part, since for the above mentioned reasons I keep reinventing the wheel. I recognize only two of the many people with whom I studied as my mentors: Constanin Rueger - my first teacher, from whom I learned most of what I knew about tango for the first few years, and from whom I learned how to teach; and since last year - Horacio Godoy. May be, if in the interim I had found a teacher to suit my needs, I would have gotten all the information I need from her, and would have progressed much faster…, but even so, I am happy things worked out the way they did, because, since I am a teacher, I had to think about every single aspect of what I do and examine every single floor of that building with a magnifying class, and that sometimes even more than once.
In this blog I want to talk about followers, even though the same applies for leads, but it will be a mess to switch back and forth talking about the two.
Back to our building. For a while, when one sees better dancers one immediately recognizes the external differences - she does more steps than me, her boleos are higher, she embellishes better. (After a 1.5 years of dancing I couldn't for the life of me see any further differences between myself and the best dancer in Berlin, who had been dancing for 11 years at that time.) Later, as one keeps moving up the building, one starts paying attention to the ease with which those elements get executed, how stable and smooth the movements are, and how everything seems to end just where it needs to be - precision. Much, much, much later, I started being able to see how a great follower would express the music with her body. How the way she steps or embellishes reflects what she hears in the music. Sometimes, seldom, I can even see the tension and relaxation in her body. If I pay a lot of attention I can see the subtleness or her movements: how small of a signal with provoke a reaction; how perfectly she would absorb the energy to express a soft note; how the duration of her boleo will be perfectly timed to hit a certain something in the music; and how her leg will hover in the air, if the music "holds its breath"...
And then there is the whole universe of subtlety that we don't see. Has it happen to you to watch a couple dance, and she's obviously a good dancer, but you don't see anything so special about the ways she moves, that might explain why the guy dances the 10th tandas with her, or why he seems mesmerized? May be it was due to my limited talent or lessons, that it took 13 years and Horacio Godoy for me to be able to understand… But what I learned from him was that I shouldn't be able to see what enchants the lead?!?! If it's visible, it's too much. What it is, is a subtlety in the way one uses their body and hears the music - the way one breathes…, the way one can isolate and engage different muscles…, the way one can pick a note or two to skip or throw into the dance…, the way one is responsible for their own movement and can make suggestions, while melting into the music and the partner… Now I know that the only way to know this subtlety is to experience it. And experience it, when one is ready for it. After 13 years of dancing tango, Horacio told me in a private: "You should know you are good, since I am not working on walking with you." Really??? That's how "good" I am?!? And yet, he was right. If he had had to work with me on the mechanics of walking, instead of the expression of walking, I would have never been able to tap into that pool of subtlety, because I wouldn't have been ready. If he hadn't felt that I have explored all the floors I talked about, he would have known that I can't relax and submerge myself into the world of subtlety… But now I'm here - eyes wide open for the invisible, I am ready to explore the next floor! And I'm so excited about the marvels that the higher floors, which I can't even see yet, will bring.
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