Why "ballroom dancing" or "Latin dancing" shoes are not suitable (for dancers/followers)

I see four major reasons:

  • Latin dance shoes (salsa shoes type) are too flexible for tango practice, this harms the dancer's essential balance and causes fatigue,
  • the "split leather" sole (a sort of coarse "suede") grips the ground too much, which is dangerous for the knees because of the multiple "slow" pivots that the tango dancer makes - except on a ground that would be ultra sliding,
  • the foam present under the metatarsals is too thin and not at all cushioning enough , it rarely has shape memory (so it loses its qualities very quickly, this is the case when your toes have definitively sunk into the foam and it no longer returns flat when you take your shoes off) which has an impact not only on the joints of the foot but also on all the joints in the vertical position. Due to the "milonguero" posture of the couple dancing Argentine tango, the weight of the dancer's body is much more on her forefoot - therefore on her metatarsals - than for ballroom dancing
  • and... they don't have the tango look . The dancers/guides are not mistaken! Many will hesitate to invite a dancer who wears such shoes and whom they have not yet seen dance, thinking that she is a beginner.

We also find these faults among tango shoe brands whose design dates back several years and which have not always been able to evolve with the latest innovations in podiatry.