Good to see we aren’t that far off in the end.. I never intended on lecturing you ladies on how to do your walk (even if that would fit well with the academic tradition of telling people how to do stuff you never tried yourself…), it was more that this apparent difference in the walk got me thinking. And after your comments, I found that I needed to be more accurate, so it helped me sort out a lot of things.

I suppose the shoes have to be just right when it comes to size.

When you try teaching others how to dance, you have to think about how both men and women in tango move, so it’s not that extraordinary (my interest in the subject). Otherwise I would just use my experience with my ‘french heels’ of about four cm and extrapolate…

@Tina: Good point about the stiffness and hips. Tan frío en el norte?

And I think it shows that you are an experienced walker, kind of proves my point (or rather doesn’t disprove it, at least). As to street shoes being disappointing, a friend of ours just got herself a pair of Comme il faut, she is a high heeled girl, but not a tango dancer. We joked that it would be funny if she took up tango, then she would be the first beginner to show up with Comme il faut shoes on her first lesson…

@Claudia: Glad you mentioned the open toe. Good for using your feet, but exposes you to damage from other dancers, including your partner…

I actually find that a lot of ladies wear dance shoes that aren’t snug *enough*. Dancing tango in shoes that are too loose can bring up some problems too. But it’s true that some people confused “snug” with “excruciatingly tight”, hehe….
That said, I have always recommended that in dance shoes gals go SMALLER than their street shoe size – only because I seem to be surrounded by folks that really like shoes to be sensible and loose. Not good for Tango technique in my humble opinion.

I also find it easier to balance in my slightly broader heeled shoes than in my very thin stilettos…

As for damage they do (to the wearer rather than other people) – I guess it depends on how much you wear them, the way your body works (hardly anybody’s works perfectly) etc. – I am sure that people who wear heels a lot in everyday life run the risk of their achilles tendon shortening – which is not a good thing…

As for size – yeah, closed shoes that are too small are evil…I only wear open toed ones…and I prefer my toes to be sticking out over the front of the sole slightly to a bog bit of sole sticking out beyond my toes – if that makes sense…

I absolutely agree that it is better to buy the half size big than the half size small. Too small is a very common problem with street heels but I don’t think people do it so much in dancing shoes as they have much better fastenings and don’t need to be tight.