The Best Shoes

OK, so I’ve talked about my dance shoes a lot and my journey to find the best ones: sueding soles on street shoes, giving up high heeled shoes because of health issues, and whining about the loss of said shoes. I’ve mentioned my wonderful Argentina dance sneakers in previous posts, both my love of them and the “looks” I have gotten while wearing them, both good and bad. Progress on that front, but let me start with another cheer for these incredible, fabulous shoes.

The shoes made by Argentina Tango Shoes are the BEST I have ever had on my feet comfort wise, and even though I have chosen to get a low heeled variety, they are very sparkly and pretty. (You can opt for a high heel if you want.) The service from this company is also perfection; any question you have will be answered promptly by Guido Scaduto, the manager. You can choose a style on their new web site (below), or you can design your own. I can’t say enough about these shoes. I can dance all night. They lace up nice and tight. I have much less pain than I used to have in my high heels. And even though they are low, they are cute! Here’s a pic of me in a pair:

About the sneaker “looks” I’ve gotten. Within the clubs Gary and I danced in ladies all wore very high, strappy shoes. When I first started wearing my low tango sneakers I got stares…some were not so nice. But as I kept wearing them more and more women asked me where did I get those shoes…I happily told them. After that more and more women started to wear low heels. This may not be entirely my doing, but I like to think I have had some impact on heel height.

I think my greatest day came at the VERY fancy Roof ballroom here in Indy. A beautifully gowned women stopped me in the ladies’ room. She pointed at my tango sneakers, sighed, and said those are pretty and they look comfortable. I said yes to both, and told her where I had gotten them.

The world of dance is glamorous. And I admit rather sadly, that there is nothing that makes a woman look long and lean as a pair of strappy high heels, dancing or not. BUT…if I think of dancing as a sport and I do, and if I would never wear a pair of high heels to an aerobics class, they why would I think of wearing those heels to dance in?

Remember the mermaid in The Little Mermaid.. (not the Disney version, the real story by Andersen)? When the mermaid walked on land she experienced terrible pain...like knives shooting up her spine. This was her trade for the ability to walk on land. My discomfort wasn't that bad, but I realized after I began wearing the sneakers that looking nice didn't have to be painful. I could have it all.

In short, my tango sneakers are cute, sparkly, and comfortable. The company will make them however you would like. They are not cheap, but no more expensive than a pair of regular dance shoes or a good pair of running sneaks. I whole heartedly recommend this company. At least check out the website. Happy shopping. :-)


Guido D. Scaduto, Manager

argentinatangoshoes.com
info@argentinatangoshoes.com
http://www.argentinatangoshoes.com/

Dance Makes the Clothes; Humans Make the Dance

I’ve been thinking lately about clothing and dance. Two of my favorite subjects. Add makeup and you have the Holy Triumvirate. No makeup today, although I did have someone ask me lately about fake tan so at some point I will write about that. Hey…it’s important. No hose in the summer is a Good Thing. And the artificial glow is so nice for covering a less than perfect surface… but I digress.

This post will contain much about dance and clothing, and how they intersect. Did you ever think about why people dress differently for every sort of dance? For example, country western line dancers and two steppers all keep their upper bodies very still; their posture is foxtrot perfect. Why? Maybe because you can’t dip your head AND wear a cowboy hat. In rockabilly the steps are tiny, perhaps because many rockabilly chicks wear tight pencil skirts. In salsa the skirts are full, short, and swishy to accommodate moving hips. Ballroom dresses for the waltz are long and flowy to show off graceful movements. Lindy clothes are loose and full, because of the jumps and speed of the dance.

Interesting, don’t you think?

If you haven’t gathered by now, Gary and I are very much into dancing our own way. We want every dance we do to be our own, which means we will always modify and create steps and sequences. Sometimes we go so far in this that the dance becomes something else instead; I don’t know exactly when this happens, perhaps when we decide to name it. For example, within our regular WCS we have added many hip hop steps and hustle moves but we still call it WCS, and it looks like it. But…we’ve also created a WCS style that is quite Latin in feel…we do it to cha cha music mostly, but also rock and roll tunes with a Latin feel. Gary dubbed it the West Coast Cha.

What is it, exactly? Mostly it’s attitude; we strut instead of walk, roll the shoulders, throw the hips out more. We’ve added some Latin moves, such as a hip shimmy at the end of the basic WCS, a regulation cha cha cha instead of an entire WCS basic, a samba hop during a cross body lead, and lots of girl Latin bling which I save mostly for the West Coast Cha. Note: Girl bling can be Latin, hip hop, jazz, belly dancing stylings…perhaps that should warrant another post. Anyway.

So if clothes and dance go together, what does one wear to do the West Coast Cha? WCSers usually wear very casual clothing in their native habitat; jeans and tight tops for the ladies, cool shirts and jeans for the men is an often seen look. Latin clothing is MUCH more flamboyant; many women wear short salsa dresses and men don nice pants and flowy tops. For our West Coast Cha then, I’m thinking because it is the WCS at its core and thus the moves are somewhat athletic, jeans would be good. Then add, perhaps, a frilly top, but close fitting…gotta show off those hip rolls.

So…did a particular dance evolve around the clothing, or vice versa? Probably no one knows, and it really doesn’t matter, but I’m guessing if the fashion of the day did not fit the dance then it was modified, just like my outfit of choice for the West Coast Cha. Humans adapt stuff to fit their needs and dancers are no exception, whether that’s a better skirt to swing in, modifying a step to fit individual needs, or creating a new dance.

I think it’s so wonderful to know that not only are there a myriad of dances already in existence to learn, there are even more that you can create yourself. What a fabulous, endless sport the world of dance is. Sigh.

A Study in Contrasts

As Gary said in his post, when you travel you never know what the dance venue will be, no matter how hard you research. And so the two places we attended over the weekend in and around Virginia couldn’t have been more different.

Let me first say unless you travel to DC there isn’t much dancing around Winchester, VA. I did find one nearby dance school and they recommended on their site a place called the Gables Nightclub. I was wary; a bar with a dance floor is not the same as a ballroom with a bar, but we decided to try it.

So we arrived after 8 (it opened at 8) and pulled into the parking lot. There were about ten cars there. We walked up to the door: locked. Interestingly enough, there was a door bell. Weird. We decided perhaps it wasn’t yet open, so we drove around and came back. More cars in the lot and some people talking. OK, we thought, here we go. But no….locked again. We decided at that point we did not want to attend anywhere you had to ring a doorbell; I had visions of a prohibition speak easy or the little green guy from the wizard of OZ saying you don’t get in no way no how to see the wizard. Or perhaps the doorbell was for something more distasteful.

Saturday then, we were more than ready to dance. We decided on the historic Spanish ballroom in Echo Park, Maryland. We were worried about the drive, but although a bit long from where we were (an hour) the journey was easy. When we arrived in the area you’d of thought we'd driven into an enchanted forest… and that illusion stayed with us the whole night. We parked in the lot and walked along a wooded path across a rushing stream. In the distance we began to hear the sweet sounds of a calliope, lights winking through the trees. I thought I had arrived in Lothlorian.

We rounded a corner and there it was in all its glory, perfectly restored. A wizened man (OK, he was a wizard, I just know it) ushered us through and I hopped aboard a long eared bunny. It was magical. The whole park was unreal; deco buildings, an old bumper car ride, set in an impossibly beautiful setting.

And then the Spanish Ballroom. It truly did feel like we’d entered another world; huge arched doorways, multicolored columns the length of the wall topped with a glowing sconce so they looked like giant candles, a perfect dance floor, and a great band. We danced and danced. And maybe because the night was so perfect, we officially now have added the rockabilly swing to our list of dances we can do out. We did great! It seems like only yesterday we thought we’d never be able to do it.

The ballroom is open air so it was hot, October would be wonderful, but a small price to pay for such a luscious experience. One of THE best I’ve ever had. Sigh.

Pictures to come when we get home.

The Not Knowing

The past week we’ve been in Winchester, VA – birthplace of Patsy Cline. I’m traveling on business but the trip is long enough to allow a weekend in VA with time for dancing. So, Friday night we set off for a place called ‘The Gables’ less than fifteen minutes away. Their website looked good, pictures of happy people drinking and partying and some verbiage about their dance floor. It wasn’t going to be a visit to a historic ballroom but a good night of dancing would be a welcome distraction from a week filled with the minutia of work.

When we got to the place it was – how do I put this politely – a skanky dump? Never got in – at eight o’clock when the place supposedly opened the doors were locked and the windows were dark. There were cars in the parking, even people in the parking lot, but the Gables seemed closed. We took two runs at the place and then turned back to Winchester for dinner at a local Thai place.

Dancing is about taking chances, I think. You don’t learn a new step without being willing to try something you’ve never tried before and then take it public where there’s a real chance you’ll screw up and land on your face in front of spectators. Finding new dance venues is the same in a lot of ways. You set off in your car, following a map to somewhere you’ve never been, and sometimes what you arrive at is a real flop – other times its gold.

It’s the chance at gold that keeps me going. Knowing you’re in for a treat is great but finding something that most people aren’t aware of – that’s special. The sense of possibility is what took Kelly and me to 8 Seconds Saloon and the Starlight Ballroom in Indy. This time it led us to a dump in West Virginia that didn’t live up to its hype in any way, shape, or form. That’s rolling the dice, no guarantees.

Tonight we’re off to a historic ballroom in Maryland. Glen Echo Park has been around since 1891 and up until a year after I was born had one of the premiere amusement parks on the East Coast. The Spanish Ballroom was restored in 1933 and shares a corner of the park with a bumper car pavilion built in the same era. There’s a ton of irony in that fact – frankly I’ve been on plenty of dance floors that could be considered bumper car pavilions! The Spanish Ballroom is suited for 800 dancers, though, and I can’t imagine a plain-old Saturday night swing dance pulling that kind of crowd. Then again we were wrong about The Gables so who knows!

Like I said, it’s the not knowing that keeps me going.

Country Dancing

Before I learned to dance, I thought country dancing was line dancing. After I became more educated, I realized country-western dancing is an entire category just like swing, latin, and ballroom.

In my country learning I first discovered western swing, which incorporates lots of fancy footwork, including square dances step and stomps and taps with steel toed boots (hey…there’s a reason for those metal tips). I love the western look, and Gary and I in the process of transplanting some of their moves into our swing. Country dancing also includes the Texas two step, which we also want to learn someday.

Here’s a vid of country swing; move it up to about 1:43 where the swing dancing starts:



So I knew about those. But at Mikes’ Dance Barn last night in Nashville, In. Gary and I saw some fabulous dances that we’d never seen before. The Smooth Country Band took the stage and were very good. First, we observed, flat out, the BEST Texas two steppers we’d ever seen. The couple was older and it was obvious they’d been doing it a long time. They were smooth as silk and perfectly in time with one another. Wow.

We also witnessed some very cool western tap dancing…I don’t know what else to call it, picture Jed Clampett doing his jig on the front porch. VERY intricate, reminded me also of Irish step dancing. It was done as one of their line dances. We also saw a country polka-like dance (picture below), a samba-ish line dance, and another line dance that almost looked like the lindy. There were some varieties of the two step I’d never seen before either. All dances were expertly done, difficult, and unique.


Here's a picture of three people doing the country polka:



For me, dancing is most fun “in the wild”, as Gary would say; places where dancing occurs as part of a particular culture. Last night at Mike’s Dance Barn was no exception…the music was hard core country twang, the crowd was beer swilling and woo-hooing, paintings of boots and cows rimmed the wall. And if you think that means sticky floors and dirty tables that wasn't the case. The place was very pretty, and the dance floor was huge and well maintained. The dancers were a joy to watch.

We weren't smacked on the back and hugged when we arrived (and I wouldn't have wanted that anyway), but we received polite nods as we made our way to a table. With dancing in the wild we’ve found if you are respectful of their thing and at least try to blend in everyone accepts everyone else. At the first break the leader of the band shook Gary’s hand and welcomed us. Our swing was different from what everyone else was doing, but as I made my way to the ladies room a guy said “hey darlin’, nice swingin’.” As we left a dude (and he really was a dude) on the back step said “you’all have a good night. “

Yakkity Yak; we’ll be back.