Saturday, July 30, 2011

Love of Heels

For someone who has been initiated into tango dancing, one thing that jumps immediately to your eyes is the shoes, worn by the ladies off course. And more specifically, the heels, the narrow nail wide spikes that make it seem impossible that it actually can support the weight of a woman.

Before saying anything else, the first question is: does a woman look better with heels or flat shoes? My quick answer is: Heels, no doubt.

And now while some people are already wanting to tell me that’s only because I´m not the one wearing them, let me paste in here some fragments from an article written by Sarah Breck, also a dancer, regarding the same subject:

“So the reason I wear heels? Because they help keep me in check. I feel like I become a better and stronger dancer when I wear them. Wearing tennis shoes for a long period of time actually cause me to develop bad habits.”

Now, I agree completely, and more, this also applies to men. How come? Well, if you ask more experienced dancers, they also wear shoes which are very different from sneakers or other traditional men´s shoe. When I started learning I used regular shoes that had a wide rubber sole and a heel which was at most the height of a finger. The first bad habit I encountered was stepping on my heels way too much and the second was an almost complete disregard for my foot placement. This works fine if all you do is walk in a linear fashion parallel to your partner. The problems come when you want to become better dancer: if you´re balancing on your heels, you can´t react quick enough, you lock your hips and stepping feels like marching; if you want to pivot on any feet, the point of contact with the floor must be super clear to you, not a huge surface which at the time was in a material that couldn’t turn anyway. And besides slowing your learning it also affects your body: ankles start hurting and since you can´t really rely on your positioning to lead, you resort to using your arms. When I finally got proper dancing shoes (not flat), what happened? My feet started to hurt, blisters appeared and I couldn´t dance more than 4 songs consecutively. Sound familiar? How come? Because of this:

“Every attempt I had made to wear heels I felt off balanced; unstable; and constricted in my movement. I loved the idea of heels but came to the conclusion they were not for me. (…)

Heels did not feel good because they showed me all my flaws.

When I wore heels I felt weak and unstable in them. Why? because I hadn’t figured out yet how to put my body in strong enough positions that let me be stable. I felt constricted. Why? because I let the idea of being in heels freak me out, causing so much tension in my body I couldn’t move with ease like I can in the comfort of my Keds.”

So, getting back to my answer regarding women looking better in heels, I would like to point the following: while you feel off balance, unstable, constricted and in pain, you are going to look clumsy, unconfident, and inelegant which are not qualities that are appreciated when thinking about attractiveness either in a woman or a men. The heels have the quality of bringing truth out in the open by forcing you to be only in the most correct manner. If not, what we see are your flaws. This applies for dancing, walking in the street or for just standing. If you don´t have the proper posture, it causes discomfort and you look silly. But used properly, then what comes out are your qualities, your elegance and that is attractive.

“So the reason I wear heels? Because they help keep me in check. I feel like I become a better and stronger dancer when I wear them”

The shoe, whether for men or women, should provide maximum freedom, all the possibilities of movement that exist. But to be ready to wield them, one needs to know how one´s body works. Understand the dynamics of your own body, your balance and the consequences that the movements of some parts of your body have on others and on your dance partner.

So, heels? Yes!

To check the article from Sarah, which is entitled "Why Women Should Wear Heels" click HERE.

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at the Verening Theater in Nijmegen with Jolanda Walder - 4 Jan 2010

at the Verening Theater in Nijmegen with Jolanda Walder - 4 Jan 2010
at the Verening Theater in Nijmegen with Jolanda Walder - 4 Jan 2010

from a photoshoot for Buenos Aires aan de Waal, Nijmegen. With Jolanda Walder

from a photoshoot for Buenos Aires aan de Waal, Nijmegen. With Jolanda Walder
from a photoshoot for Buenos Aires aan de Waal, Nijmegen. With Jolanda Walder