Log In

Username:

Password:

   Stay logged in?

Forgot Password?

User Status

 

Attention

 

Recover Password

Username or Email:

Loading...
Change Image
Enter the code in the photo at left:

Before We Continue...

Are you absolutely sure you want
to delete this message?

Premium Membership

Upgrade to
Premium Membership!

Renew Your
Premium Membership

$99
PER YEAR
$79
PER YEAR
$79
PER YEAR

Premium Membership includes the following benefits:

Don't let your Premium Membership expire, or you'll miss out on:

  • Exclusive access to over 1,620 video demonstrations of patterns in the full bronze, silver and gold levels.
  • Access to all previous variations of the week, including full video instruction of man's and lady's parts.
  • Over twice as many videos as basic membership.
  • A completely ad-free experience!

 

Sponsored Ad
Carrying Weight over feet.
Posted by Dave
3/1/2006  6:53:00 AM
I find I carry my weight further forward in the quickstep than in the foxtrot is this normal or is my weight to far back in the slow foxtrot Thanks?
Re: Carrying Weight over feet.
Posted by suomynona
3/1/2006  10:14:00 AM
"I find I carry my weight further forward in the quickstep than in the foxtrot is this normal or is my weight to far back in the slow foxtrot Thanks?"

If you can name where you are carrying your weight in your foot, that must mean it is in approximately the same place for a long enough period of time to be worth mentioning. A little consideration of dance actions will show that there's really only two circumstances where that should be true: hesitatations, and places where you are only using the toe (which really means the forward part of the foot in general).

Any lowered step which involves the heel at either the beginning or the end should see your weight moving smoothly and continously through the foot enough that you cannot be said to carry your weight in any particular part of the foot for that step at all.

However, it is extremely common, especially for the men, to try to slow down a foxtrot to match the music by keeping the body weight stable over the foot for a brief period. This is quite common, but also quite unworkable as it means that you must either stop your body movement (not very "foxtrot") or leave some body parts behind to balance those that do keep moving. Usually this is done by bending at the waist - leaving the hip behind while the top and the foot continue into the next step.

Many teachers will fault your for that habit, but extremely few will explain the underlying problem and how to fix it. A full examination of the technique of movement in the swing dances will show that the only proper way to slow down is to rise. Becuase of the direction in which our knees bend, we do not have any way to brake our foward motion without distorting our bodies out of a partner-compatible posture. We do have some ability to slow a backwards motion, but it has to be used sparingly as the person moving backwards would have to be the brakes for their forward moving partner as well, and we generally want to avoid exerting actual force on our partner's body - lead and follow is information, not push.

Since we cannot slow our lowering motions without deviating from proper technique, our only choise it to time our rising actions such that well executed lowering actions will have us moving at the right speed, and right timing relative to the music. Learn to do that and you will no longer think of carrying your weight at any point of the foot in the lowered steps of foxtrot.

One advanced case to contemplate is pivoting actions. Does the progress of the weight through the foot really stop during the pivot, or is that only an initial approximation used when explaining the rough idea of the step? Similarly, heel turns - are they on the heel, or does the weight travel back to one heel and then smoothly forward from the other?
Re: Carrying Weight over feet.
Posted by Dave
3/1/2006  2:57:00 PM
Thank you Suomy, I will gives this some thaught. Perhaps I should have said Posture. In Tango my posture is more over the heals ,in quickstep over the balls of the feet,in foxtrot over the instep,in waltz towards the balls of the feet.
Re: Carrying Weight over feet.
Posted by suomynona
3/1/2006  5:05:00 PM
"Perhaps I should have said Posture. In Tango my posture is more over the heals ,in quickstep over the balls of the feet,in foxtrot over the instep,in waltz towards the balls of the feet. "

In tango your weight does spend some time compartively stationary with your hip over your heel during the early part of a forward walk (over your ball of foot for a backward walk though).

And in quickstep or anytime you up on your toe, the point of pressure will move within only a fairly small area of the ball of foot.

But when in foxtrot do you spend any period of time standing over your instep?
Re: Carrying Weight over feet.
Posted by Dave
3/3/2006  6:40:00 AM
Suomy,you don't have to be standing over your instep to feel the the HEAD weight and spine is over the instep for example on the fox feather lateral sway moving from the LF to the RF where is the weight of the head? Dave
Re: Carrying Weight over feet.
Posted by suomynona
3/3/2006  9:12:00 AM
"Suomy,you don't have to be standing over your instep to feel the the HEAD weight and spine is over the instep for example on the fox feather lateral sway moving from the LF to the RF where is the weight of the head?:

Outside of your standing foot. As a result, you cannot hold that position but would fall over if you did not continue the motion in a reasonable way.

Foxtrot is essentially devoid of stability, outside of hesitations. Tango has flat foot points of stability at the start of most steps. Foot closure endings in waltz and quickstep have something that is very nearly stable when you are up, but share foxtrot's instability when you are down or in between.

You might point out that in your swing example (it is swing, not sway that is important there) the point of pressure is located in one foot and then the other, but does not move without the foot. My earlier comment was that you have this on toe only steps, but you do not have a stationary point of pressure on whole foot steps when you are lowered - thus you cannot be said to carry your weight anywhere in those steps. If you are carrying your weight stationary towards the rear of your foot for any duration of time in foxtrot, you are actually substituting something that is halfway to tango on every lowered step...
Re: Carrying Weight over feet.
Posted by suomynona
3/3/2006  9:13:00 AM
should read "does not move within the foot"

+ View More Messages

Copyright  ©  1997-2026 BallroomDancers.com