Ballroom Dancing

Customer Service answers:

It refers to the type of dancing you’ll do.
Waltz, foxtrot, quickstep, Viennese waltz, and tango (smooth/standard dances) would technically require standard shoes. Shoes for Latin/Rhythm/Swing would be different.
Then you also have practice shoes.

I’ve been dancing for years and just go with the styles and heels that work for me, since on any given night I’m dancing all the of dances.

I would assume competitors wear nude shoes to elongate the leg and have the shoe “disappear”.

Customer Service answers:

I find pied a terre and bertie quite comfortable. The trick is to have the plastic heel tip replaces with a steel tip or another hard wearing tip that your shoe cobbler recommends. I also have a rubber exterior sole put on my stillettoes to stop me slipping and also to stop the leather soles dissolving in the rain!!

Customer Service answers:

It depends which tango you are doing, because there is the ballroom tango and the Argentine tango. Although tango always seems very Latin, the ballroom tango actually comes under the Ballroom five dances which are ballroom tango, waltz, foxtrot, quickstep and Viennese waltz. I am doing an exam in Ballroom next month with two dances, the waltz and ballroom tango, and they are danced one after the other, and I will wear exactly the same shoes and outfit for both. The Argentine tango, like the salsa, swing, rock and roll, etc, are each separate branches of dance. Latin American branch currently has five dances which are cha-cha-cha, rumba, samba, jive and paso doble. There is a difference between shoes for ballroom and Latin American, and there are different shoes available for other different types of dance. If you hear of anyone going in for a ten-dance competition, they are meaning all five of the official Ballroom dances and all five of the official Latin American dances. Anyway, back to shoes … Try looking at a site like the one below, and you will see all the many shoes available. The important differences are in the type of heel, whether they are open or closed toe, and the type of strap or fastening they may have. There are even practice shoes which don’t look so glamorous, often being laceup to stay firmly on your feet, but the important bit is the heel on them to give you practice dancing with that sort of heel.