[Tango-L] Why your feet hurt

[Deby Novitz]

I can dance easily in ensayo with Roberto or others here for 3 hours.  
At the end, I feel great.  No pains in my feet or elsewhere on my body.  
One of the American women who stayed with me would tease me and say that 
I had "feet of steel".  I was the only woman she knew that could wear 
10.5cm heels for 10 hours and not be complaining about their feet. I 
realized though after dancing back in California or here with a male 
student, my feet would be killing me. Quite simply, the man does not 
have his axis or balance and is using my body.  I am compensating in 
order to keep my own presence. I had to learn how to compensate for this 
in order to be able to dance and teach.

When I first started to dance tango,  until I had my balance and axis, 
my feet would kill me.  I would wake up in the morning and feel like the 
little mermaid.  The thought of walking was very painful.  I was 
gobbling ibuprofen like jelly beans.  Maybe you have noticed ladies, 
that sometimes when you dance one foot hurts more than the other.  I 
found that with many men my left foot was more painful that the right.  
Although the left leg is considered the supporting leg for women, many 
men kept my weight on the left foot most of the time.  Having all your 
weight (and his too) on one foot creates this problem. 

It goes back to the lead - I don't want to debate lead, axis, balance, 
but let it suffice to say that most of us in the U.S. learned patterns.  
We think we are are leading and following.  We are not for the most 
part.  I have watched students in our classes who want to concentrate on 
what Roberto is teaching with regards to 2 steps forward, giro, blah, 
blah, rather than to feel the music and to understand the movement that 
goes with it. The same goes with the follower.  The woman will think, he 
does this, then I do that, rather than to feel the music and to follow. 
Habits hard to break on either side.