I am saying that you do not have compression in a forward direction unless the body part being compressed as a forward component to its orientation.

Bending you knees as you move over a foot is a vertical compression, not a forward one, becuase the ankle-hip distance which is being compressed is oriented vertically when you are over a foot.

Suomynona. What I'm realy asking and not doing a good job about it, Do we pause or stop the body flight when we lower on 3& of the basic waltz. My dancing friends say that when we first lower we are not moving forward. I say this happens only untill the heal hits the floor or else we would lose the power of gravity to help carry us into the next step. Dave

"What I'm realy asking and not doing a good job about it, Do we pause or stop the body flight when we lower on 3& of the basic waltz. My dancing friends say that when we first lower we are not moving forward. I say this happens only untill the heal hits the floor or else we would lose the power of gravity to help carry us into the next step. Dave"

Exactly, you must be moving as soon as the heel hits. And the body might even be moving earlier than that, but musn't move so far that either partner's heel can't get their weight for an instant. This rouinding out of the bottom corner of the lowering from foot closure is probabably, secretly, one of the hardest skills in ballroom. So many beginners stop dead, so many 'advanced' couples do what is basically a foot apart lowering into 1 of the next figure (on which they should already be beginning to rise again!)

"A sprinter's body is inclined forward in the direction of motion when he is down on the starting thingy. Hence a compression along the length of the body will have a forward component. But as a dancer you cannot afford to have a strong incline into the direction of motion - you may have a strong incline against the direction of motion, be vertical, or a very miniscule incline into the motion in a few select settings (tipsy, etc).

I am saying that you do not have compression in a forward direction unless the body part being compressed as a forward component to its orientation."

You seem to imply by the above statements that to have a forward component of compression one's entire frame must be inclined in the direction of movement (as in the example of a sprinter). That is an incorrect assumption.

Look at it this way, The leg is being compressed and the lower leg (ankle to knee) is definitely inclined in the direction of motion. So there's a body part with a forward component for you. Also during compression one gets one's 'centre of weight' ahead of the 'point of pressure' of the supporting leg into the floor. This means that during the compression action the force applied onto the floor is at an angle. Therefore there is a forward (vector) component of force being applied by the supporting leg, in the compression action, even though the upper body is fairly upright.

I should clarify that one should not consider compression to be the receiving of weight onto the new supporting leg, with the accompanying relaxing of the knee. Compression is the action that follows, that is the use of the supporting leg in continuing the movement forward onto the new supporting leg.

Dave, what you were saying earlier is quite plausable.

Rha

Suom and Rha. I will spice this up a little more by saying that on the first step(RF) of the the NT, as we lower into that knee this is a much lower point than in the previos step. Also because we are so deep into the knee(vidio images) that there is more compresion and release here than from the previous step. Our bodys path is not forward between 3& and (1) as it is between the prep and first step of the feather,but is declining. Dave

"I will spice this up a little more by saying that on the first step(RF) of the the NT, as we lower into that knee this is a much lower point than in the previos step. Also because we are so deep into the knee(vidio images) that there is more compresion and release here than from the previous step. Our bodys path is not forward between 3& and (1) as it is between the prep and first step of the feather,but is declining."

Dave, this is a dreadfull, if sadly common mistake. The body must not be losing height into step 1. It is true that the lowest point is between when the body is over step 3 and over step 1, but by the time you are close to arriving on step one you must be already starting to gain altitude again.

Note that the knee bend will be quite deep even as you dance over step 1, but do not confuse this with a continued reduction in altitude. The reason is that the heel must already be rising - for a brief period the knee is flexing, but being offset by the rising heel, so the actual height is increasing.

Of course the knee must also bend a lot to counteract the changed geometry as the body moves closer to the foot. If it did not, we would have rise on 1 (foxtrot) instead of "commence to rise end of 1" (waltz).

Sorry they were dancing from a prep step. I would really be digging an impossable hole to get out of from a previous high,And so there would be a lot more compression on the lowering.

A prep step is simply the end of the kind of foot apart downswing lowering you would find in foxtrot, or after something like a chasse (only inside partner). It is like dancing the latter half of a step 3.

I should have used the whole word. Preperation step .From a standing position step forward with the left foot, the lowering on the RF will be different in waltz than in foxtrot. The body"s path declines between the first and second step in waltz.