Maria Teresa Schuster slips into a shiny silver pair of heels and gets ready to take the stage.
These shoes are a true “license to fly,” she says.
A good tango has many elements: posture, balance, the male lead; But for many elite dancers, it’s the shoes that matter the most.
“The tango shoe is something very special. It has to shine, have a nice heel, make me feel stronger and more powerful,” said Schuster, 72, a regular at the Paracultural Milonga (local tango hall) in Buenos Aires, where the world championships are currently held. The competition runs from September 6th to 18th.
Cardiologist and pianist Schuster has been dancing tango for 20 years.
“When I put the shoes on, I feel like someone who is suggestively putting on gloves to prepare for something intense,” she said.
“The shoes are like a license to fly on earth. They have to adapt to the foot and you can feel that they are caressing and being caressed at the same time.”
– Breakthrough Designs –
For Carla Marano, an internationally renowned professional dancer, “when you dance in heels, the leg shape becomes aesthetically different—better, in my opinion.
“And it’s functional: dancing in heels makes it easier to shift balance forward, to the midfoot and toes, which is essential in tango.”
During the pandemic, music therapist and tango teacher Marina Kenny asked a dozen great dancers to describe their relationship with their shoes for an e-book.
One of the dancers, Mariela Sametband, wrote: “Shoes are to tango what a guitar is to a guitarist, a broom to a sweeper, or a knife to a cook.”
“It is the instrument through which we express ourselves. Of course it is our bodies that move … but the shoes are an essential vector because they connect us to the ground.”
A specialist shop in the chic Recoleta district of Buenos Aires sells the cult brand “Comme il faut” primarily to foreign customers.
The shop was opened about 20 years ago by two fellow dancers who capitalized on a tango renaissance after the dance had declined in popularity after its 1940-1955 heyday.
“I used to tango, but I didn’t like the shoes on the market, they were always black and old-fashioned,” co-founder Alicia Muniz told AFP.
“I decided to make my own shoes. It took me two years to perfect the fit, height and comfort, and then I took them to the milonga and they drew attention.”
She began to “incorporate lace, leopard print, materials never used before” and co-founded the brand with Raquel Coltrinari.
– ‘One Niche, One Business’ –
Appearance is of course important.
“When you dance, people look at your feet. (The shoes) are an attractive object,” Muniz said.
The shoes not only serve the aesthetic but also a functional purpose and their design needs to reflect that.
A nearly indestructible steel wire is inserted into the soles down to the toes – which must not be pointed – while the shoe is secured with a strong strap.
All these elements are essential for acrobatic tango moves.
“The soul of the shoe is the arch,” which must be carefully selected to perfectly fit the arch, Muniz explained.
As for the heel, “the tallest is 9.5 to 10 centimeters (3.5 to 4 inches). Anything more and you couldn’t dance without twisting your ankle,” said Muniz, who also makes shoes for men with a slight rise in the heel.
According to tango teacher Moira Castellano, “Heels can be your greatest ally or your worst enemy.”
Comme il faut – a name borrowed from the title of a 1917 tango performance about a lost Parisian love – sells around 15,000 pairs a year and exports to Europe, Japan and the United States.
It also caters to professional dancers in Buenos Aires.
Tango accessories have become “a niche, a business,” says Kenny, who wrote the book on tango shoes.
The industry is a far cry from the impoverished migrants to Buenos Aires in the late 19th century who are said to have invented the tango and performed it in their normal shoes.
But as important as the shoes are, they should never prevent “the tremendous pleasure” of dancing, says dancer Analia Vega.
