I can't agree with this. What you are saying is "the first step is slow, so there is a "slow" between the middle of the last quick and the middle of the first slow" (have i understood you correctly?).
The middle of the last quick is exactly that - in the middle of the last quick and therfore not part of the first slow.
My original point on all this is that most dancers - even advanced dancers - plant their foot on the note because the note defines the beat (i was talking about simple 3 notes-per-bar waltz, and still am just for the moment) yet the technique books effectively place the step boundaries on the & beat (between the notes) which can be danced no problem, but is a source of confusion for those learning.
Transferring my comments to foxtrot (and taking a big risk!!)i would maintain that i plant my right foot (first step of feather) on the beat and so the preparatory act of moving the right leg past the standing left leg, sliding it across the floor (with my body following appropriately, in case anyone points it out!)takes place during the previous & (usually 4& in my case). Of course, i do attempt subtle rhythmic variations to interpret the music - with limited success - but this is the essential timing i use as a base. I'm prepared to do this differently if i can be convinced that good dancers do it differently, but from videos i've watched, i'm yet to be so convinced

The footfalls in good SQQ foxtrot are VERY approximately on 2, 3, and the & after 4. But nobody times the feet to music - we time the body and the feet do what they have to in order to enable this.

Just when I thought it was safe to come outside. Low and behold we were made to do a change of direction in the Foxtrot with only three slows, and not four. So how did we manage to come out in rhythm, I hope you can follow this because this is what you are watching without realizing. Count this way slow slow then quick on the left foot which is normaly a slow. And a quick on the first of the feather which is also normaly a slow followed by the normal two quicks. I even watched in a major competition on tape a professional do a Natural Turn. At first I couldn't figure out how he got away into his Feather so quickly untill I took a few more looks at it, and also counting with my new found knowledge. After that I took nothing for granted and can pick out competitors who syncapates a Open Telemark to come back into rhythm which is 1234 and not 3412,

Some teachers encourage their students to count the Modern Waltz in half beats
with the foot closing, on a (and) count. Leaving all of three to reach your height and lower on an (and).
It was recomended that in pracise both should count aloud.

Hi Anonymous

I have been injecting your ideas/concepts in my system for the past about four years with gratifing results.

Thank you.

However, I am now anonymous too because I found myself in traumatic situations for doing things that the "experts" did not understand.

Some of them have now discovered the website.

Keep up the good work. In this life you are not usually rewarded in a monetary way for divine contributions made to the development of the species.

You are an agent of the great master. When he is pleased with you, there is the peace that passeth understanding.
The technique here is that you don't go after it.

I am positively sure that there are countless people all over the world who have benifetted from your good work

Thanks again.

Something that has'nt been mentioned before and that is. Lowering in the Modern Waltz. If you allow your body to lower it will always beat the knees, and out pops the bottom. So stay up to come down, and stay down to come up. In other words use your undercarriage not your upper body. That will get rid of your bottom sticking out. and your shoulders lifting.

Getting back to the Feather in the Foxtrot. This is what a group of us was taught by a former British Rising Stars
Winner. He counted to eight. On the eighth beat we did our preperation step. Just one beat. Then we let the first beat go and did our heel lead on the second beat. The effect of this felt good. From then on it was as normal. Which only goes to show how the timing can be manipulated to suit. I won't even go into the alignment for the Feather Finish in the Reverse Turn or the way the timing was played around with there. If somebody was by your side doing the normal timing though, at the end of each section we would both be on the same beat.

Hi Don. your posting is very interesting. Perhaps a new thread should be started on it.
When he counted to eight, do you mean he counted 8 half beats in the bar?. Assuming this is so, the preparation step was on the last half beat in the bar, and you then said that you "did our heel lead on the second beat" - presumably this means the right heel plant occurred on the second half beat in the next bar.
Is this a resonable interpretation of your posting? And please say more about the details of the reverse turn timing. Maybe a new thread would be good, as it's becoming hard to find the new postings in this one

That's the usual way of dancing slow foxtrot. Taken absolutely literally, it gives the "mambo trot" look (2,3,4) but smoothed out so that the steps are continuous it's just right.

Phil - no, not half beats. Counting an empty measure 567 and prep on the 8, then start counting the feather 1 2(step) 3(step) 4...(step)

Hi Anon
so you are saying that the heel plant for the first step on the right foot occurs on beat 2 (that's how i'm interpreting your " 1 2(step) "etc) followed by the left foot plant on beat 3, then the right foot plant on beat 4?. I'm realising that these steps aren't necessarily exactly on these beats.
however, i would like to ask this question--- following this arrangement, how can the first step be called a slow, when the time from right foot plant to the next (left foot) plant is only 1 beat?
how much freedom does the good dancer (outside the resticted syllabus) have in comps to manipulate the standard technique book timings in this way?
I'm in the education business myself and one thing i'm a little uneasy about is this... we obviously teach graduating students diferent things from fresher students; however, we avoid at all costs teaching freshers material which will have to be 'forgotten' in graduate year.
Maybe it's because dancing is an art-form.