Yes and all the time when the moving foot is off the floor and when the both feet are on the floor the moments are in balance.

This has stood the test of time ever since the first book of Ballroom Technique was ever written. That is at the extent of your stride. The front heel is on the floor having not yet lowered to a flat foot. The back toe is on the floor with the heel raised. If you go to the Learning Section on this web- site. You will see a series of leg foot and body positions which can be printed. You will see that the body is in a split weight position before it moves over the front foot, when the knee bends to about 46 degrees between the foot to the knee. When the persons weight is right in between the legs.and is photographed. You would not know whether they are going forward or backward. Something that SQQ wrote about earlier. Don't lets forget that bend of the knee absorbs the propulsion created by the rear foot which involves the knee which just earlier was also bent to store and use the energy needed to go forward. Somebody is going to ask. Do we bend the knee on the first quick in the Feather Step. The answer is of course no. That is a toe with no lower. At the collection point. That is the weight arriving onto a bent knee . If you look down your weight is over the foot and the knee is slightly forward of the body but bent. How far the knee bends depends on how good a dancer you are.

Movements which can be done very very slowly only can be done at constant velocity or momentum. Dec- or acceleration makes all other possible.

Quickstep, the book has stood the test of time, yes. But much of what your write about and see in the videos here is not out of the book. It is recent development, some of it flawed. Compare an old video to a recent one and perhaps you can see the differences - not in the amount of movement, but in how the method of movement you are used to seeing no longer matches the original. Maybe you'll be lucky enough some day to see a true champion who moves in the traditional way, but at the modern volume. Or maybe you won't see one, or won't recongize what they are doing when you see it.

Hi Quickstep
Would you agree that the poise for the gentleman is forward at the commencement of a forward walk? If so, what does the gentleman gain by changing that poise at the full extent of the stride. There will be a point - which has been explained - that the body weight will be equally divided between the heel of the front foot and the ball of the back foot sometime during the walk. But surely the poise will still be forward.

If you are concerned as to where the point of balance is whilst dancing slow foxtrot, then you will never dance a good foxtrot. The resulting 'analysis paralysis' will inhibit your progression. So just get out there dance
and enjoy.

Curious. At last a sensible question which goes straight to the heart of the matter. As a dancer our body stays verticle. We must not lean forward or backward. The main argument here is there are those who think the weight can travell forward without using the feet or the knees and thighs as the propellant. To those I would suggest that they glue their feet to the floor. Bind their ankles knees and thighs. Now try to move your body weight forward still keeping the body verticle. Like a legless person. Without tipping the head and shoulders forwards. We can't can we. Which answers your question, is the body weight forward . Having said that we are refering to the Basics. Somewhere in a Foxtrot group there would be a variation where the body momentaraly is in free fall. like a Rumba Walk where we go to the point of imbalance before we catch our weight with the moving foot. For my part I cannot remember being taught anything in the Foxtrot like that. I always remember a teacher telling the class. That on a moving train doing a 100mph. Hold a table tennis ball over a fixed point. Drop it, and it won't miss the spot. But to remember we as dancers are moving over the floor which is not moving beneath us. Interesting isn't it. All that writting above just to say we stand up straight and our legs carry our body and not our body carries our legs. Anonymous wrote just prior to this to compare an old tape with a recent one, and seemed to be in favour of the old. I'll do one better I was there when the Foxtrot was done with very straight legs. I doubt that there will ever be a return to those days. Like everything time moves on and in only one direction. Keep dancing

"The main argument here is there are those who think the weight can travell forward without using the feet or the knees and thighs as the propellant."

Yes, if the body is already, which teh majority of the time tt will be...

"To those I would suggest that they glue their feet to the floor."

Okay.

"Bind their ankles knees and thighs."

Fatal mistake - this has no correspondence to dancing.

"Now try to move your body weight forward still keeping the body verticle."

No problem, provided that only your feet are restrained.

Granted, you can only travel so far before you have to move the free foot, but his travel before the free foot moves is extremely important.
"Somewhere in a Foxtrot group there would be a variation where the body momentaraly is in free fall. like a Rumba Walk where we go to the point of imbalance before we catch our weight with the moving foot. For my part I cannot remember being taught anything in the Foxtrot like that."

It happens on essentially every step, but it's most obvious on the lowering steps.

"All that writting above just to say we stand up straight and our legs carry our body and not our body carries our legs."

Actually both are true at various points in the cycle of the step. Any leg movement not a result of the body carrying it is absolutely prohibited in the swing dances. Body movement not carried by the legs occurs quite a bit, but so does body movement carried by the legs.

"Anonymous wrote just prior to this to compare an old tape with a recent one, and seemed to be in favour of the old."

Nope, in favor of the new that still incorporates the old, over the more common new that forgets the fundamentals of the old.

"I'll do one better I was there when the foxtrot was done with very straight legs. I doubt that there will ever be a return to those days."

That is still the correct way to dance it if you are not moving much. Deepness of leg bend is direclty related to distance covered - if you are not planning to cover much distance, it's a serious error to bend your legs much. On the other hand, if you plan to cover modern competitive distance, then you need to bend your legs more than they used to. Pretty simple...

Anomymous. Once again the body is not ahead of the feet. Unless the body is on an incline towards our partner. Which it is not supposed to be. Some of us will have seen the film " Shall we Dance ". There is a partnership in the film which is shown a couple of times. The upright posture of the man is clearly seen. I wonder why the ladies are not comong into this discusion. They are the ones who will suffer by being pushed back to a lowering of the heel to soon. As we all know with the person going backward the heel does not lower untill the moving foot comes along side and passes. If you as a lady can do this solo, and can't when with partner, something is not right. If the man's weight is ahead of the feet you haven't got a chance of doing it correctly. Lower too soon will result in the front leg becoming straight and the toe popping into the air. That last sentence is by a former Blackpool winner Steve Hanah, not by me. In fact everything that I have written is a repeat of what I have been told or read. So we have those who will argue with John Wood. Anne Lewis. Steven Hanah Alex Moore and our own Jonathan. And the list goes on.

"Anomymous. Once again the body is not ahead of the feet."

It's becomming clear that you have this problem in your dancing...

"Unless the body is on an incline towards our partner."

The vertically aligned body's center passes beyond the standing foot before the moving foot passes the standing foot. It's not really that hard to do - you've probably done it several hundred times today - you just weren't wearing dance shoes at the time.

"Which it is not supposed to be. Some of us will have seen the film " Shall we Dance ". There is a partnership in the film which is shown a couple of times.
The upright posture of the man is clearly seen."

The guy is a latin dancer without a real understanding of how to move in modern. As a result posture is about all he has. Certainly you want to have good posture, but there's a lot of importance to flighting the body (which I seem to recall you dismiss)

"As we all know with the person going backward the heel does not lower untill the moving foot comes along side and passes."

You have the inequality backwards - the heel must lower by the time this happens, not "does not lower until".

"If the man's weight is ahead of the feet you haven't got a chance of doing it correctly."

Yes, if the man's weight is on top of the lady that is bad, but the man's weight can be ahead of his feet without being on top of the lady.

"Lower too soon will result in the front leg becoming straight and the toe popping into the air."

Well that actually should happen, though hopefully gradually.

"In fact everything that I have written is a repeat of what I have been told or read."

Nope, it's a repeate of what you heard or understood - not necessarily what was said or written, and most certainly not what was done.

"So we have those who will argue with John Wood. Anne Lewis. Steven Hanah Alex Moore and our own Jonathan. And the list goes on."

You are channeling them? I don't think so. Happy to discuss any of this with them firsthand though.