Why Women Buy Tango Shoes

               At practica a woman remarked that she only wanted to dance tango until she was skilled enough to buy tango shoes. I told her she could do that right away and thought it was a frivolous comment. Dancing with another woman I mentioned the remark and she agreed that it was best for a woman to hone her skills before buying the shoes. She added that buying the shoes might compel her to become adept at tango movement.

               Talking to another tanguera she likened the shoe purchase to wearing the ‘cylinder’ hat in dressage. She said wearing the cylinder while riding infers the rider has advanced skills and that to wear it without ability would leave the rider open to ridicule.

                There is something special about tango that piques a woman’s curiosity enough to compel her to engage in an endeavor that may take years to satiate her intellectual appetite and possibly her spiritual and emotional appetites as well. It is an awesome force indeed that inspires a woman to buy a pair of carrots to motivate her to pull her cart forward towards dexterity.

               During the course of practica tangueras will often sit and contemplate life while staring unconsciously at something that catches their eye. Sunday night there were not many as our small crowd was gender-balanced. When I followed the gaze of the few I did observe, it ended up in the same place: on another women’s high heels.

               My initial reaction to a woman’s obsession with shoes was that it was positively silly. The feeling is akin to watching a lady throw a baseball: she throws like a girl! Arghh! LOL!

               After six years of tango I can tell you that I don’t think that anymore. At a milonga I look to the shoes to find an experienced tanguera. If I dance with a woman who has great heels and find that she can’t even walk in them then I think she is a slut, only here to get laid.

               This is not the case at practica. A woman at practica is familia. I treat her like a sister and do everything I can to help her find her balance in these strange contraptions she’s strapped to her feet.

               Mostly I write as an advisor for men entering tango but today I offer my advice, worth what it costs, to the tangueras out there. It is my belief that men react instinctively, negatively, when exposed to a woman’s attraction to high heels. Though we may skoff and/or ridicule, know this one fact to be true: we absolutely, positively LOVE to see you wearing them! At a primal level, seeing a lady in the shoes turns us on; so buy the shoes and don’t worry about what’s playing in men’s brains. If you could see inside our heads you wouldn’t know if you were reading our thoughts or watching the nature channel.

 Note: For an in-depth look into the mind of the Kayak Hombre, read his book, available on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/River-Tango-perri-iezzoni/dp/1453865527/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1369366756&sr=1-1&keywords=River+tango