Vidadance Shoes for Men
I have a lot of shoes for tango, not because I like them all but because I don't like any and I keep searching for the one pair that will be easy to dance with and comfortable.
I have "classic" shoes, I find them heavy, uncomfortable, and rigid - which compromises my balance. I have sneakers (DNI, TangoLeike, Darcos), they're light, comfortable, but well it's training shoes, wearing them in a milonga is like coming with clown shoes.
The term "classic shoes" encompasses too many possibilities to be useful.
Even in Buenos Aires it isn't clear what that would mean. I've looked at
Darcoss in the past only to see three different styles, each with a different
type of sole/heel unit. One I would say was probably virtually undanceable
except completely on the balls of your feet, the sole was so upturned.
The exaggeration of show tango has had a strong influence too resulting
in an increased heel height for dramatic effect.
My preferred shoes now are more of an Italian style in which the leather sole
is thinner and lighter than a typical English welted one. A good fit is important
as is a heel height - if there was such a thing as a standard height in Buenos Aires
it would seem to have been about 3cm rather than the one inch (2.5cm)
prevalent in the UK. That is enough to provide the forward projection without
the excessive lean often incorrectly promoted as apilado.
Now these shoes are well broken in, I can walk, tango and jive in them,
even West Coast Swing. Not only that, they are the most comfortable and
supportive shoes I currently have.
So I ordered a Vidadance pair, and brought them to my tango class, together with my 2x4 al Pié, which I thought was similar in the concept. Neither sneaker nor classic, sole in two parts.
The shoes were delivered *very* quickly, a nice change from other online shops. I used the footprint tool to choose the size, 7, the smallest available by the way. On the footprint it looked almost too small, in reality the shoes are slightly too large, the end of the shoe is 1 cm further than the end of my thumbnail. During the class two followers walked on my foot (they usually don't), not hurting me though as they actually walked on the shoe and not on the foot.
Maybe a 6,5 would have been better, not sure though as the shoes have a long and narrow shape, so for my foot it's probably either too narrow (6,5) or too long (7).
As you have found, sizing is a big issue and can be worse for others
depending on foot proportions. There are no alternative width fittings
and not even half sizes are available.
I too have the over length problem - essentially it is another negative
for tango that, because of the shape of the design, too much shoe protrudes
beyond the end of your foot to be practical for close embrace tango.
Your pictures also clearly show the unconventional position of the split
in the sole compared with the Alpie.
The stability is perfectly ok, I know I am given to walking too much on the side of my foot and in this respect the shoes are more forgiving than, say, my Tangoleike which make me fall sideways if I am not perfectly centered. They have no significant heel which is more or less ok for me as I belong to the "toes-land-first" school of walkers. Still I would not mind slightly higher heels.
I cannot comment about how you walk or dance etc. But I cannot see the
point of using a shoe which is not inherently stable in itself. A good shoe
should add to your stability not make you unconsciously work even harder.
As an experiment try walking on the balls of your feet with your eyes closed
and open, barefooted and in your various shoes.
Pivoting is very easy, you can pivot on a carpet, like with the 2x4 Al Pié when you select the most slippery sole.
And thus too slippy for a dance floor. The slippiness is a result of a very
small contact patch. For such contact patch reasons is why a motorbike
with its smaller contact area can never outcorner a car.
They're not flashy, usually when someone brings brand-new shoes there are comments from the other dancers, here nobody said anything... until at mid-class I switched to my 2x4 Al Pié. For me it's ok too, I don't like to draw attention, still maybe it's a sign that people don't identify them as tango shoes.
Most male social dancers in Buenos Aires use street shoes. So called tango
shoes are flashy for attracting attention. It's the negative influence of
today's visual world on a dance of feeling.
The thing is, they're too large, when I walk I feel I am losing them, and they will end in the drawer with all my many pairs of "almost" good tango shoes.
Size apart, the sum up would be: Are they tango shoes? No. Is it easy and enjoyable to dance tango with them? Yes.
Of course your opinion is valid for you though my experience of perhaps
dancing a more traditional tango was not even half as positive as yours.
