1885  Rubber-soled shoes in the Golden Age of Tango ?

Date: Fri, 10 Oct 2003 15:12:44 -0700
From: Dave Schmitz <dschmitz0077@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Rubber-soled shoes in the Golden Age of Tango ?

Sorry Brian,
but rubber-soled shoes have been manufactured for
over a century. Rubber heels were patented in 1899,
Keds (a brand of sneakers) were trademarked by 1916
and the first synthetic rubber, called neoprene, was
patented in 1932, ten years before the Japanese
controlled most of the (natural) rubber-producing
areas.

So yes, people in Argentina could have been wearing
rubber-soled and rubber-heeled shoes a century ago,
well before the Golden Age of Tango.

Whether they danced in them or not is another
question, which I cannot answer. If we have someone
on Tango-L who personally witnessed the dance shoeware
of 1942, please speak up.

From my experiences learning folk dances in other
countries, the locals often dance in whatever footwear
they happen to have on (including sneakers),
if they have any footwear at all !!!,
and on whatever surface is present, whether wood,
linoleum, concrete, tile, asphalt, dirt or cow
pasture.

That includes turning dances, during which the cow
pasture (yes, this is personal experience) was ground
down into bare sand, and which we continued to use as
it was the only surface available.

Dance ethnographer friends related stories of one
(European) village woman who had never worn shoes (my
friends met her during the 1990s). She did not wear
shoes even in the snows of winter. She danced in her
bare feet, including turning dances. I did not meet
her, but I did see the heavily calloused feet of other
villagers. They were not tender and soft as those of
most present-day urbanites.

At the other end of the footwear (or lack of it)
spectrum, I was once criticized by a folkdance teacher
from another country for wearing shoes that were TOO
nice for dancing. Yet another cultural difference.

DJ Dave de Denver

PS: No, I don't really have a foot fetish. But I do
admire nicely designed high-heeled shoes, pretty eyes,
nice ... uh, I think I'll quit now.