If you ever have to pull onto a foot, you are not doing enough to send your body from the standing foot.

In tango you must aim precisely to arrive on the foot; in the swing dances you must aim to arrive beyond it.

Dave. This might not be answering your question completely. We are taught that the preperation step is small. If it is big followed by another big one will cancell the other out. Some take a preperation step on the ball. We are taught that if we were to give each step of a Feather a name it would be. preperation small, then big, small. small. I'll stop there because it gets more complicated on the Reverse and the Three step with the different size steps for the man and lady, they are not exactly the same at all times.

Suomynona. From, A techenique of Advanced Standard Ballroom Figures. Geoffrey Hearn 2004. With forwards from Eggleton,Hillier,Hilton,Peggy Spencer,Kenny Welsh,John Wood.
Teaching 1.Head weight commences the movement.2.3. 4.Body weight pulls left leg forward. I checked this out when I went for my walk this morning and this is what happens. I was always taught like you the opposite,that we don't pull our weight onto the foot I am of cause refering to the first step in the bar of music.

"Body weight pulls left leg forward. I checked this out when I went for my walk this morning and this is what happens. I was always taught like you the opposite,that we don't pull our weight onto the foot I am of cause refering to the first step in the bar of music."

The leg is pulled (sent) by the body.

The body is not pulled by the leg. (It is pushed by the departing leg)

2.Left leg drives body weight
3.Right foot action continues to PULL body weight forward ???

Dave. As Suomynona said . The front leg does not pull the moving leg. The front leg and the body arrive because of the drive of the standing leg which is now going to become the moving leg. Anybody who teaches otherwise should give up.

I practise walking backwards uphill. (don't worry - the local people understand!!)This makes it absolutely obvious that the standing leg does all the work by pushing the body forward (that's backward if you're going back). Walking backward uphill is good practise. Good exercise too

Well Phil I think you would have to push all the time to get up a hill but this is not dancing. Don I think you should purchase the latest book on advance ballroom dancing 2004 and judge for youself. The book has the approval of most of the top pro's of yesterday and today and was written by Geoffrey Hearn. I cannot repeat what is in the book but I will give you this one part sentence. The foot will flick down to being flat and it is this action that PULLS the body weight onto the right foot. I did not think that was correct untill I studied my walk and found that the push from the back foot only swings the body onto the heal, don't flick the foot down and you will lose momentum unless you step onto a flat foot which will bring your weight tipped over the ball of the foot.

"The foot will flick down to being flat"

Yes

"and it is this action that PULLS the body weight onto the right foot."

No

This is the sign of a dancer who overswings their legs beyond their reach of their body's flight. They should be competing track and field, not ballroom.

This is the way it has been explained to me,that if you over reach you weight will be stuck in the middle of both feet and you will have to PULL(drag) your weight onto the front foot. I believe there may be a suttle difference between that and what Geoffrey Hearn is saying that us die hards are not willing to understand. Sorry for the bad spelling,if I had to look up every other word I would never complete a sentence.