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The energy on my dancing feet – Buenos Aires tango shoes 2010

December 6, 2010 in Buenos Aires Information, Diary of a Tango Dancer in Buenos Aires | 11 comments

Silvia Alanis at workTell me what you’re looking for and how much cash you want to spend, I say, Then I can decide on our route.

My friend is a tango-shoe virgin — so far she’s been dancing in footwear that resembles ankle boots and, I imagine, must deliver very sweaty results on 35-degree, early-summer days. I say this based solely on knowledge of my own feet which, alas, do not stay muy dry after three hours of dancing, even in winter. We’re standing on the corner of Montevideo and Avenida Santa Fe in Buenos Aires, at 11 o’clock in the morning on the first Saturday in December. I’m remembering my own first tango ‘danced’ in leather-soled cowboy boots from Mongolia, and the pair of shoes that followed those boots: ugly black closed-toe affairs bought in a dance shop in Basingstoke in 2006.

I’m looking for a pair today, too, I tell my friend, I might treat myself… if I find the perfect shoe.

It’s almost eighteen months since I bought my 2×4alpie favourites, and I’ve neither bought nor worn anything else since. I’ve been waiting for the new models of 2×4s for women to be ready, but they’re not due till next year. So, I need a fresh-smelling pair of tango shoes that will feel comfortable from the moment I step into them and that can cope with a pretty intense workout on dance floors of stone (common here in BsAs) as well as of wood. I don’t really expect to find anything that fit the bill, to be honest, but introducing a girlfriend to some of the tango shoe stores in Buenos Aires is a great opportunity to see what’s on the market as we approach 2011.

In Recoleta we visit Taconeando (on Arenales), GretaFlora (the new store on Uruguay) and Comme il Faut (just off Arenales in its slightly-tricky-to find-if-you-don’t-know-it’s-down-an-alley-and-up-some-stairs location).

Taconeando has prices as low (and therefore as relatively affordable) as around $300pesos, a red and black pair that my friend loves, but not in her size, and nothing to tempt me, because I already know their styles (though I like the youthful, trendy look of some) don’t work on my feet. The shop assistant leaves us to it, but tells us the shoes available are only those on display — no other sizes — which seems a bit odd, and I can’t help wondering about the economic climate, the rampant inflation in Buenos Aires and how tango-shoe businesses are being affected by the combination of the two. The brand retains its original designs, but the shop itself does not have the up energy that it had the first time I went in there in 2008. We move on.

We are the only customers in the new GretaFlora store. The store has a classy, designed-for-Recoleta feel, but I’m a bit disappointed to realise we’re in a store selling mainly street shoes for around $700-plus pesos a pair; the tango shoes — which do have a beautifully-crafted look — are from $580pesos (I think the assistant says that) and I’m afraid I decide on the spot that I’d probably save that sort of cash for a shoe with an interchangeable sole, in other words the new models of 2×4s due in 2011. While admiring the stunning leather and stone-cluster clip-on flowers behind the counter (a relative bargain at $90pesos a pair), we learn from the friendly and kind assistant that it’s the Palermo GretaFlora store that has the full range of tango shoes… this new store is really for weddings, parties, luxury footwear for off the dance floor. No-one else comes in while we are there. We thank her and move on.

I already know I won’t be buying anything in Comme il Faut as I just don’t find their shoes flexible enough or cushioned enough for my slightly damaged left big-toe joint (I’ve got 4 pairs of CiFs in my kitchen cupboard that I never wear). However, once my bum is on that velvet couch of theirs, I can’t resist trying a pair in black patent leather … but no, I was right, the toe bar is way too hard for that left foot, so I hand them back fast. My friend, on the other hand, predictably falls in love, with a delicate design in red and black that conjures words like France and sex and goddess and daring romance. She spontaneously starts doing adornos on the carpet in front of the mirror and clapping her hands, and I see the SOLD sign reflected in the shop assistant’s eyes. But, it seems, my friend is not the impulse buyer that I myself can be. She leaves her heart’s desires in a box with her name on it and promises to call before 3 o’clock if she wants them. We’re told they’re $440pesos for cash (surprisingly similar to the 2009 price) including $10pesos to get cromo (a coarse suede suitable for the average dance floor) sole put over the standard leather (slippery on wooden floors). As we leave, two female customers come into the store to take our place. I think I count four assistants ready to serve them. A quiet Saturday or the norm these days? I seem to remember the sofas overflowing with eager punters in the past. We leave Recoleta behind and make for the scruffier Microcentro.

We walk a roundabout route up Esmeralda to take in TangoBrujo (I was once tempted by the comfort and trendy denim of a pair of shoes in there), but instead of the buzzing shop and high-energy tango school I was expecting to find, I’m confronted with the sad face of a dusty, locked building that offers only a feeble memory of tango, trapped in a few remnants of window signage. Perhaps only the ‘go’ in tango is left there, stuck in time on the glass, and we do indeed move on, with me muttering, I knew there was something up when they closed for renovations last year… hell, I’ll have to cover it again on the Happy Tango updates blog. My energy drops a notch at the loss of a place that so many of my younger friends enjoyed over the years, but I remind myself that sometimes things have to fade so that new things can grow in their space. I march my friend on.

How many more shops can we fit in before they close (3pm or even 2pm on a Saturday)? The six clustered on Suipacha? I’m thinking this, when into my mind pops the image of a metallic lime green toe-bar with an embroidered swirl — an Alanis shoe I saw in the window of Diagonal Norte 936 in 2009. I remember the shop and realise that I am almost standing outside it. The door of the tiny store is open. And inside, a smiley woman is dancing, kind of bopping actually, to tango music, as she organises the window display. Her vibrant energy reaches me before I get to the threshold. Let’s just do this one first, I say to my friend. And we go in.

Hey! How lovely to see you dancing so happily, I say aloud to the woman, in my heavily British-accented Spanish. I can’t help myself… the words tumble out to greet her.

I’m Silvia Alanis! She almost sings it, And these are my shoes. I design them!

She enthuses to us about the old models, the new models, the details that she is most proud of. She darts around the shop, touching this shoe and that. I notice the stitched signatures, the pink heart in the Alanis logo, the Alanis strapline You can fly! and the fresh leather smell of the new models for the summer season being unpacked on the floor.  Silvia Alanis proceeds to help me find exactly the style that will feel secure and strong on my feet, and as she does so, we talk about the addictive nature of tango, about the milongas, about the men in the milongas. We laugh a lot. I sense that her business is alive and kicking and, I hope, growing. I know I want to wear her energy when I dance. It shouts CREATIVITY AND PASSION! I buy two pairs of her shoes at $430 pesos each. I show her Happy Tango, and the Alanis entry in it under 10 Tango Shoe Stores, tell her how the lime-green toe bar and embroidered swirl stayed in my mind and led me back to the shop one year on.

I reckon we are with her about an hour, though we do pop round the corner to the stores on Suipacha (still there but with one or two small changes not really worth mentioning), where my friend buys a Titania-worthy pair of deep-green shoes in a packed-with-customers Flabella for less than $300pesos, while Silvia Alanis makes final adjustments to my own new shoes down the road. On our return she puts the shoes on my feet and measures exactly where the holes in the straps should go. I leave the store beaming and confident that I won’t sit in the milonga later wishing that I had a hole punch in my kit bag.

By the time we’ve trekked back to Comme il Faut for the red-and-blacks, it’s 2.55pm. Comme is about to close, but now it’s heaving with customers (so perhaps GretaFlora and Taconeando are too) and I realise that the many tango visitors who frequent the night-time milongas (and the tango shoe stores) are probably not out shopping at 11am in the morning. Unlike me who wakes at 6am to have breakfast with C. before he heads off to work, even on a Saturday, and who dances in the early-evening milongas as a result. I can choose to dance three hours at a Traditional-style** milonga and still be in bed by midnight, thank God.

My friend and I laugh our goodbyes with excited voices wishing each other well for the night’s dancing and for the new shoe try outs. I can’t wait to step into a pair of mine at Los Consagrados where I’m headed later.

But, I’m a little nervous. How will it be to be led on to the pista with an unknown quantity on my feet — brand new shoes carrying only the energy of Alanis and whoever else has touched the leather? My 2×4s may be well worn and in need of fresh air and retirement, but how many miles have they danced with my soul? They are packed with a sense of security and familiarity, memories of my tango footwork, imprints of every piece of music that has resonated through them. They’re the first dance shoes that have felt as a perfectly moulded extension of me. Can I ever get that feeling again? Should I really have trusted my heart in deciding to take Silvia Alanis into the embraces of ‘the milongueros I love the most’? Or should I have kept scrubbing the 2×4s with CIF cleaning creme for a little longer?

The night ahead holds the answers, and as I turn from waving my friend chau, I can’t help noticing the slight slink and swagger in my walk, as I stride down Corrientes towards the moment when I will take my new shoes onto the dance floor to lose their virginity…

Dammit. Who says tango isn’t about sex?

For pics of my old and new tango shoes, in all their December 2010 glory, click here.

There is a good interview with the founder of Taconeando, Marlene Heyman, in the November edition of the Cambalache magazine, which appears to be a new and topical ‘tango magazine’ first published in April 2010; the website is very informative with details of concerts and other events posted. Enjoy.

**For my definition of a Traditional-style Buenos Aires milonga, you’ll have to read a copy of Happy Tango — my book.

Buy Happy Tango: Sallycat’s Guide to Dancing in Buenos Aires, and start flying towards your own tango adventure in Buenos Aires, today!

Join the book’s Facebook page for all the Happy Tango updates from Buenos Aires; click here and then click ‘Like’.

If you’ve enjoyed reading Happy Tango, please recommend it to someone else who would enjoy it too. Thank you!

Click a link to buy Happy Tango from:
amazon.co.uk
amazon.com
amazon.ca
amazon.fr
barnesandnoble.com
BookDepository.co.uk
BookDepository.com (the Book Depository offers free shipping to many countries). If you prefer to buy from your bookstore, then you should be able to get them to order you a copy, wherever you are in the world. Ask for:

ISBN: 9780956530608
Author: Sally Blake
Published by: Pirotta Press Ltd
Publication date: 30 June 2010

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And the first ever Absolutely Bloody Brilliant Barbie Award (ABBBA) goes to…

June 4, 2009 in Buenos Aires Information, Diary of a Tango Dancer in Buenos Aires, Live your dreams, Uncategorized | 7 comments

IMGP4028 It happened because I offered to buy a few pairs of men’s tango shoes for friends in Britain. It happened because I finally decided to consider a tango shoe for myself, that I’d previously ruled out because it didn’t look like the CiFs I was used to. It happened because my Spanish is now at a level where I am not so fixated on my own inadequacies that I miss noticing the soul who is speaking to me.  This week my absolutely bloody brilliant Barbie spotted another absolutely bloody brilliant Barbie and the…

images Barbie images Barbie

Absolutely Bloody Brilliant Barbie Award

was born.

I saw the Barbie too. I saw it in the eyes of the shoe designer who sat in front of me, as he told me that he never stops thinking about how he can make the best tango shoe in the world. I saw it in the inspired and unique interchangeable sole of the 2×4alpie shoe he held in his hand. I heard it in his slightly breathless voice as he told me why, regardless of the horrendous inflation in Argentina and the effect it has on the price of his shoes, he will never compromise on quality.

Afterwards, Me and my Barbie stood shivering in the freezing cold at ‘the quinze’ bus stop in Scalabrini Ortiz, but our excitement kept us warm.

Sallycat, we have to party! trilled Barbie, and she continued in a rush, I mean Sallycat, in the battle against the VODs, you just gotta talk Barbies, and not just your Barbie. You gotta shout about the other Barbies in the world too. Make beautiful Barbie noise, and drown out the VODs! Don’t you think, Sallycat? Oh don’t you? Don’t you? Oh please say you do!

Oh I do. I do.

So I will. With this award. Which I shall give freely, whenever my Barbie wants.

I remember back in 2007 when 2×4alpie was just starting to sell shoes. There was no shop in those days. Chacho was a mate of Ariel’s and he used to bring the shoes to Club Gricel on Saturday nights and we all used to marvel at the interchangeable soles. I was a bit dubious: Would I really want to change the soles? Would the ingenious velcro system actually be strong enough to hold the new sole in place? Wouldn’t the sole catch on uneven floors?

IMGP4037 I did love how the ladies practice shoes were about as far away from the usual clunky trainer style as you could get, made me feel like a princess (I hadn’t discovered Barbie at that point), and came in gold with holes in the upper to let the air flow cool over hot feet. Carlos fell for the wine coloured shoes in the softest leather I had ever touched. There were no ladies tango heels back then and anyway I was buying CiFs. Me and C. couldn’t resist though, and we started our family of 2×4s.

IMGP3955 Ariel often danced in Chacho’s shoes too and he went for the totally cool man designs in black and white or brown and white. Style-wise, I’ve never seen anything to compare anywhere else, to be honest. Maybe it’s the shoe shape, maybe it’s the specific pattern of the one leather laid on the other, maybe it’s in the softness of the leathers themselves… I don’t know, but when I see a man in these shoes, I see class, I see trendy, cutting edge… I see a tango dancer who knows what’s what. C. says that when he puts his 2×4s on he is transformed, becomes a bit of a ‘lad’ apparently, a dancer with attitude. In other words, his own dancing Barbie likes the shoes too.

Last year at the BsAs Tango Festival in Harrods I did try on a pair of the women’s tango shoes. I wanted them because they were the most comfortable I had ever put on my dancing feet, but I was still umming and ahhing about whether I liked the thicker than CiF heels. A male British mate of mine, let’s call him Greg, was with me that day, and he did splash out in the men’s department. He took his first ever pair of black suede 2×4s back to tango Britain. Was he the first Brit tourist to buy? Not sure, but I came away happy that Chacho’s gorgeous shoes would see the south of Inglaterra at least.

IMGP3969 Now I’m headed back to Britain in July, and Greg has asked for two more pairs of 2×4s: the proof of the pudding as they say… and so I make my visit to the shop this week, because yes, there is now a 2×4 shop. This time I try on the women’s tango shoes again. I’ve come along way on my tango journey in the ten months since the trip to Harrods last August. I no longer care about the width of the heel or the lack of glitter or lace… all I’m interested in is whether I can dance my heart out in this shoe. From the second my foot slips into the black and white pair, I have my answer – this time there is no hesitation.

IMGP4016 Chacho and Me sit in his shop for a bit with some choccie biccies and he shows me the old ladies tango shoe, once the property of a very famous tango dancer, that he took apart when he was working out how to make his shoes. He tells me how the famous lady tango dancer said to him, Make this shoe, but make it better. He shows me the stuff we wearers of tango shoes normally never see: the cardboard inside the shoe base, which eventually cracks and splits with serious dancing; the synthetic upper that looks convincingly like leather but isn’t, the lack of elastic at the buckle or the elastic that has torn with stress. He shows me how a 2×4 shoe is made… no cardboard in sight… just leather, leather and more leather.

IMGP3964 He reveals that it took eight months to develop the rubber/suede/leather interchangeable sole system. I tell him that I will definitely be using it: between the sweaty baldosa floor of La Milonguita, the glass like surface of La Ideal, the slippery wood in Centro Regiòn Leonesa, I know I am going to test it to its limit. No problem, he says.

While Chacho talks I notice something in him that I recognise. I see the same thing that’s in me when I talk about how I want my ebook (now in its second draft, honest) to help first timers on the road to happy Buenos Aires tango memories, when I talk about wanting to inspire people to follow their hearts, when I talk about wanting to help people to set their own Barbie’s free. I see passion. I hear it too,

I’m always thinking about how I can make them better. Always… he says.

His eyes shine, and my beautiful Barbie sees his Absolutely Bloody Brilliant Barbie. I see it too.

Maybe I should call this Barbie, Ken? After all it does live inside a guy, and God only knows how Chacho would feel about me talking about his Inner Artist this way… but, oh sod it, no, I won’t. I like the idea of an army of Barbie’s mixing creative magic in the world, be they living inside men or women.

So, Chacho Rosenkrantz of 2×4alpie, you unique and special human being you… for mixing tango shoe magic from passion and creativity right here in Buenos Aires, I’m giving you the very first

Barbie IMGP4028 images

Absolutely Bloody Brilliant Barbie Award

whether you like it or not. End of.

And folks around the globe, if you want to see more marvellous photos of 2×4s nestling among the tango shoes I have known, do check out my new and rather super Flickr photoset of that name, for the full celebratory picture book of  Sallycat’s Buenos Aires tango shoe family.

If you actually want to see the 2×4alpie interchangeable sole being changed, check out this little 2×4 video, which gives you a glimpse of just how bloody brilliant it is.

You can find 2×4alpie at Scalabrini Ortiz 1753 Apartment 3, Buenos Aires from 3pm to 7pm Monday to Saturday. If you want to be sure and meet Chacho, then phone before you go 1550112000 to make sure he’s in not out. In June 2009 all 2×4alpie shoes cost $470pesos a pair (when bought direct in Buenos Aires) and come with the full set of 2×4 sole change accessories and the sturdy, practical and super stylish 2×4alpie shoe bag.

And finally, if you own a pair of 2×4s, please feel free to celebrate them here!

The lovely trophy image above was originally on the web at dealbreaker.com.

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Magic: tango shoes 2009

May 30, 2009 in Diary of a Tango Dancer in Buenos Aires | 29 comments

IMGP3940 We gather at 2pm in a posh cafè on the corner of Arenales and Libertad. We are Miss 15, Miss 10, Miss 4 and Me (since last week I am Miss 7).

Miss 15 announces,

Sorry everyone, I hope you’re not in a rush because I’ve ordered the Menu of the Day which includes a pudding. I’ve got to EAT! I just know the woman in Comme is going to remember that I never went back for those shoes…  I told her I had to check the colour of my dress… I didn’t know how to say I didn’t want to buy them… she put my name on the box and everything… I’ve not dared go in there since. Oh – my – God!

I say,

Well that’s why we’re going in there ‘juntos’, the four of us together – one of us is bound to buy. Takes the pressure off the others. Right?

The four of us end up sharing two massive lunches, although we don’t get extra plates because it turns out that in upmarket Recoleta, we will have to pay extra for the privilege of sharing. We play pass the plate instead, and the waiter turns a blind eye. We relax in each other’s company and enjoy being girls: our topics of conversation range from whether Argentine men are ‘lazy’ or not, and no, I’m not going to spell that one out nor reveal all, to how many pairs of tango shoes we each actually own: 15, 10, 7 and 4. We rather noisily spill ‘first pair purchase stories’, ‘the death of the first pair’ stories, and ‘the mistakes due to impulsive madness in Comme BsAs’ stories. Afterwards, as we make our way along Arenales towards the almost, but not quite, hidden alleyway that leads to Comme itself, Miss 15 and I pray together that the other punters in the cafè where we ate lunch did not speak English…

From the comfort of the Comme velvet chaise longues and happy in the knowledge that I am spending someone else’s dosh, I confidently select two pairs for Brit girls back in Blighty: one of the pairs I secretly want, and they’re in my size… Well, if she doesn’t like them, I mutter.

Miss 4, who is heading back to England herself next week, buys, with much encouragement from us all and from the boyfriend or husband of another customer – I’d so ask you to dance in those: mad but totally fabulous black and white dalmation toe bar and purple silk heel cage.

Miss 15 buys too, that is once she’s zipped into the stock room to strip off her thick woolly winter tights (in hindsight, perhaps not the best choice for tango shoe shopping): unbelievable classy purple patent leather snakeskin (a thumbs up from me on the easy to clean front). I would have bought them once upon a time, in the days before I sacrificed looks for padding.

Miss 10 gives excellent advice but refrains from trying on a single pair.

The prices aren’t as much of a shock as I expect. Yes the one Special Edition seems to be an outrageous $520pesos but most come in at below $450pesos for cash… yes of course we’re talking top end prices but these are absolutely a tango shoe being sold to tourists, and the fact remains that if you are a tourist then compared to what you can get in Britain at the prices you’d have to pay, these shoes are still not expensive – well, I mean, aside from the minor detail that you had to spend shedloads on your plane ticket to get here in the first place.

From Comme at Arenales 1239, we amble the few blocks to 1606 and Taconeando where none of us have ever been before. As I shoo the chatty chicas across the street and they spot the store, Miss 15 cries,

Oh thank God it’s a proper SHOP with shoes out on display and everything!

I know what she means. The Comme thing of having to describe what you want and then hoping they bring you a decent selection does get a bit wearing. In Taconeando there’s none of that. Within minutes the place is our dressing room, Miss 15(now 16) is peeling off those tights again and we can’t keep our hands off the shoes. They have a simple but funky feel, and one or two styles are different to anything I’ve seen before: I like them and on Miss 4(now 5), Miss 10, and Miss 15(now 16), the vibrant metallic leathers look absolutely bloody fantastic. On me they look ghastly and I am reminded that until you put shoes on yourself, it really is very difficult to know. I sit centre stage, like a mum giving advice to the daughters I might once have had: it’s fun. My ‘daughters’ are delighted to hear the prices too… Sorry, could you repeat that, did you say from $250pesos? My girls’ hands are in their respective wallets faster than you can say Taconeando. And they let us use their loo. Lovely.

As we (now Miss 15(now 17), Miss 10(now 11), Miss 4(now 6) and Me (still Miss 7)) cram into the taxi for El Beso and the early evening milonga we are all clutching prizes with heels. OK, mine aren’t actually mine, but I’m still savouring my DNI treasures from last week and saving myself for a visit to 2×4alpie (home of top end comfort)  on Saturday… a visit I’m making in part for the lovely British boys in my life and indeed for all the tanguero lads who read this blog – watch this space.

3525436021_02fb44ec78_mOh and while I’m on the subject of favourite tango shoes, I’ve this week been back to one other gorgeous store too: at Acuña de Figeroa 1612, the designs are unique and sport flowers; the colours have such depth that I feel I could dive into the shelves and disappear for a very long time; the craftmanship is top notch… it can only be GretaFlora, and I’ve written all about them before here and here.

I mention them again because for all you tangueros in the UK and Europe, I have great news! GretaFlora now have an agent in Blighty – two mates of mine as it happens: Anne and Donna; their gorgeous range of GretaFlora shoes (for both women and men) can find their way to you wherever you are, and can be found right here at AnD Tango. Take a look!

Meanwhile, back in Buenos Aires at El Beso, I dance in my pink DNIs. The sole, which is mostly rubber but with a suede toe area for pivoting – or at least I think it’s suede, works absolutely brilliantly on the wood floor. I feel rock solid on the heels that are slightly lower than I’m used to, and my body relaxes as a result. More than once I sink into my seat in front of the large mirror somewhat breathless from the bliss of being able to dance free from pain in my toe joints: I actually feel my dance has changed, and I like where it has shifted to. So do my partners it seems. They say some nice stuff with their eyes as they pull away at the end of each tango. I love that. And so, I love my shoes even more. I even find I love El Beso, which actually is a bit of a turn up for the books as I’ve often found it to have a slightly dingy feel in the past… oh hell what am I saying? It still has the same feel, but I find myself smiling anyway, and lingering: I am the last of us four girls to leave. I might even go back next week.

Ah, the magic of the right tango shoes when it comes to generating the all important magnetic energy, in the quest for tango bliss.

Do you have a magic pair that work wonders? Oh do tell…

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