Yichen. This actually is beauty to explain. Stick to Tango. A closed Promenade, S Q Q S. Four Steps = six beats. The Tango is meant to be sharp. Go to the last slow, and arrive on the first beat, Then stand still for the remaining beat. If you agree with this then apply this to all your slow beats in the Tango. There are probably exceptions to this in the more advanced figures, but not for an intermediate dancer.
Foxtrot . One step for man RF forward heal lead = two beats. Heel arrives on the first beat Toe lowers and the knee bends. plus the moving foot comes into a neutral position on the second beat but not to a stopped position. For me it makes sense that a first big step arriving on the beat of one gives me a whole beat to do the rest. This is of course debatable and the best thing to do is study the videos for yourself.
As a lady supperimpose this on the mans step and what have you got. You have the ladies heel touching the floor as the man's toe touches the floor. That's called being together, A bit beyond most of us at this stage but it is a good starting point. And as I said above, go look. Best of luck there.

Dear Don,
Very carefully to read your reply, I understood and agreed with you :
Generally, slow should be fully occupied by speedy long step or slower speed step . such as walk, closed promenade in Tango. Variation accepted for advanced dancers,dance styles, emotion of music,or figure or combination of figures. ( S! S! S! Karen, rolling right turn in quickstep. staccato action ) S-S ( 4 beats ) ( Karen , outside swivel in Tango, with soft feeling ).
Lady back feather S q q . I will dance as that right heel arrive at first beat of S, left toe ( leading ) swing to position, w/w , right foot and left foot occupy 2 full beats , then body weight transfered on first q ( thirt beat )...
Leg action appear leisurely because of slow in slow foxtrot .
I prefer to have steps simultanuously with the melody, let them flow with the song. ( of course when I danced on myself.
Man's ball-toes <---> lady's heel ( 100% body weight on stnading foot ) is exactly a good point . Thanks.
ylchen

"Foxtrot . One step for man RF forward heal lead = two beats. Heel arrives on the first beat Toe lowers and the knee bends. plus the moving foot comes into a neutral position on the second beat but not to a stopped position."

In a word, NO!

A foxtrot slow lands just before, or right on it's second beat. Landing it on the first beat is far to early and would seriously misshape the trend of motion.

This is equally true for SSQQ foxtrot as SQQ foxtrot.

Anonymous. You have just rewritten the technique book by giving the slow in the International style Foxtrot as having one beat, or is it one and a bit. Split the two beats into four halfs. The heal arrives on the first 1/2 beat, the toe lowers on the second 1/2 beat. We now have to bend the front knee towards our partner as our weight arrives .There's another 1/2 beat gone The rear leg which is moving has a 1/2 beat to pass through a nuetral position and land dead on the first quick. Of course there is nothing to stop anybody doing a prep. step on one beat, on beat one. then a quick on beat two (this is the first of the Feather )followed by the normal two quicks. We do it all the time after a Change of Direction. You wrote landing on the first beat to early would seriously mishape the motion. Not if you are going to bend that right knee. That right knee has got to bend after at first being straight.

"Anonymous. You have just rewritten the technique book by giving the slow in the International style Foxtrot as having one beat"

No, I haven't rewritten anything.

You however have read something into it that isn't there, and is not compatible with the way anyone dances or teaches. Nobody lands the weight on beat 1 for a foxtrot slow, because it is not requested in the technique that you do so, and because it would be severly impractical to do so and maintain continous motion.

If you wish to preserve two beats for the slow, that is an interval of time measured between when the feet pass. However it is an interval of time of two beats duration - it _does not_ literally mean beats 1 and 2 of the measure. The preceding second quick will occur far later than 4 of the preceding measure, so the time interval of the slow is offset a bit beyond the start of the current measure. Again, the duration of the slow may be two beats, but this period of time is not aligned with the first and second beats of the measure.

If you want a very mechanical, crude approximation to the weight transfers, trying dancing 234. This is a much, much better approximation than 134, but it's still not really foxtrot.

Anonymous. Tell me how you are going to do a Reverse Turn for man or lady if you don't do the full two beats on step one. And step four of the Reverse in Foxtrot is going to feel a bit odd.Also let us remember that in the Swing dances the forward step and the backward step are identical .

"Tell me how you are going to do a Reverse Turn for man or lady if you don't do the full two beats on step one."

Never said I wasn't.

Your first mistake is assuming that the weight transfer comes at the middle of a step's duration. That's not really true.

Your second mistake is assuming that the two beats worth of time duration are aligned with two particular beats of the music. That's also untrue - they are offset.

what it comes down to is that if you transfer weight or even place your foot on beat one for an alleged slow, you will be criticized for rushing the timing, because in fact you are

Let's take Don's assumptions at face value and see what happens:

Pretty much no matter how you think foxtrot timing works, everyone agrees that the first Q is weighted either right on the downbeat of 3, or is at least that this step is closer to being on a beat than any other.

If we take Don's assertation that the foot is weighted at the midpoint of a steps duration, and we give the downbeat of three the time value of 3.0, then it follows that the first quick occurs between time value 2.5 and 3.5.

Working backwards, we find the slow of two beats duration must take place between time 0.5. The midpoint of this would be 1.5, suggesting the first step falls halfway betwene beats 1 and 2. That's substantially later than the on beat 1 Don proposed.

In reality though, I believe the weight change in a slow may be proportionally later than that in a quick - I'd try to weight the slow no early than time 1.75.

But to return to actual dancing, getting caught up in the timing of the feet is putting the cart entirely before the horse. Foxtrot timing is fundamentally body timing - the feet just do what they have to, when they have to in order to support the body. As a result, the feet generally will not, and should not, fall precisely on the beats, with the exception of the first quick happening to coincide with beat 3.

It had been third time I tried to understand what you said ; I reviewed Marcus's teaching video clip . Marcus demonstrated :
preparotary steps:
on 3, shoulder weight toward foot ) commence to move;
on 4, LF (just a walk forward) prepares to drive body weight out through lower, rotate ( CBM ), press floor + swing RF and right side forward ( right shoulder anchor on R heel ) R heel arrives on 1, body weight jouney through whole right foot , ( forward and gradually rising , heel off on 2) +
left foot passes over right foot on 2 ( S=2 beats ), and continuous swing up to its position (without body weight prior 3 ( left side leading ) ;
left ball receives 50% body weight then 100% on 3, it pulls body weight up and right foot swings to its position in CBMP on 4 , recovery and prepare next figure on &.
Marcus showed smooth and light beautiful feather step with this way.

If count qqqq or landing on 2, we may have no sufficient time to perform beautiful swing up from valey ( s) to plateou ( qq ).

The meaning of dance with full time value , it may be similar as that we sing or play half note in 4/4 song. s+ 2 beat.

Any way, if you would kindly describe what you mean in more detail , I will be very appreciated. I noted some competitors land on second beat of S. I hoped to know how and why.
Thanks.
ylchen.