"Anonymous. First we don't bend our hip. "

You do - but the dancer in picture two has not, and that is the key problem in your udnerstanding of dancing right now.

"Picture two the weight was over the rear foot and is moving off it."

Has moved well beyond it in this picture - the body is obviously nowhere even remotely balanced over that standing foot. Only if the hip were also bent as you like to could the body stay back in balance while the knee went forward. But this dancer did that part right - she kept her hip unbent and projected her body forward, aligned over the knee, into imbalance.

Anonymous. You've lost me there. My hip bends when I reach down and touch my toes, otherwise it doesn't bend.
Your being a bit ridiculouse with your picture two. The figure is moving, isn't it. Where was it a 1/2 second before. Where will it be 1/2 later. Will it be in position three.If this is a Waltz we are on step one . The front leg has not stopped moving at this point and I can see it is in front of the body and will remain there untill the completion of the step.Which will be as the moving foot arrives under the body and the knees have started to bend. From here we have to decide whether this is a Waltz or a Foxtrot.

"Anonymous. You've lost me there. My hip bends when I reach down and touch my toes, otherwise it doesn't bend."

Well Don, it's really simple.

If you body remains vertical as your knee bends forward of your toe, one of two things must happen:

You also bend your hip, so that your body stays in place over your standing foot. This is what you do, and it's WRONG.

Or, you can NOT bend your hip, keep your thigh vertical and advance the body past the standing foot, so that it remains vertically aligned and located over the standing knee. This puts it off balance, and it is PROPER DANCE TECHNIQUE.

"Your being a bit ridiculouse with your picture two. The figure is moving, isn't it. Where was it a 1/2 second before. Where will it be 1/2 later."

What is important is where it is in that picture - which is to say forward of the standing foot, or in plain English, OFF BALANCE. Now obviously it can't stay in an off balance position - it will either fall over (bad) or keep moving into a nice step (good) - but at this instant in time, it is quite clearly OFF BALANCE.



Will it be in position three.If this is a Waltz we are on step one . The front leg has not stopped moving at this

Anonymous. I stand between a door frame. My first finger and my middle finger on each hand on each side of the door jams. I move up and down to a knee bent position, My hips do not bend and the body stays verticle. Maybe you don't have the strength in the knees anymore. I never go to a full knee bend ever. There was a time that I could go to the full knee bend and up again on one leg and repeat several times. Not anymore, but I have retained some of the strength which i use. I can understand a person getting down so far and then having to bend at the hips. But that doesn't make it right does it. So when I flex my knees and my knees go ahead of my body I still stay on the up and down track which we call verticle. So the lesson behind this story is. If the strength in the knees is not there then don't try to influence people with your own shortcomings to introduce a mistake to cover a mistake.

"Anonymous. I stand between a door frame. My first finger and my middle finger on each hand on each side of the door jams. I move up and down to a knee bent position, My hips do not bend and the body stays verticle."

Does your thigh remain vertical?

If it does not, then something at its upper end is bending. I called that your hip, maybe you would prefer a different name?

Anonymous. My thigh is at an angle of 45 degrees along with my shin and the angle that my foot is from the floor. My heels lower and at the same time or thereabouts my shin and thigh will reach the 45 degrees. My body stays as it started verticle. There will be no nodding or bending forward from the waist. If this is to be followed by a step one heel will not lower. Another excercise for thoes in a hurry. Use the full weight of the body against the kitchen sink and do some simulated press ups.

"My thigh is at an angle of 45 degrees along with my shin and the angle that my foot is from the floor. My heels lower and at the same time or thereabouts my shin and thigh will reach the 45 degrees. My body stays as it started verticle. There will be no nodding or bending forward from the waist."

No one said anything about bending FORWARD.

However, if your standing thigh is at a 45 degree angle and your torose is vertical, then it is quite obvious that there must be a 45 degree angle of bend in the vicinity of your standing hip.

If you would take a more careful look at the picture of the lady in forward walk #2, you would see that she does not have such a bend, because her THIGH is nearly VERTICAL.

She is doing it properly and projecting her weight past her foot as a result. Whears you have this mistaken extra bend at your hip, because you refuse to commit your weight forward into the movement.

Anonymous. Define hip. We obviously have different ideas here, My hips are the pelvis which goes to the part where the pelvis join the thigh. From there down is the thigh. If the shin bends then the thigh bends the bit above it doesn't. Another way of looking at it is three blocks of wood one on top of the other. They are stacked from the waist to the bottom of the Pelvis. They will remain one on top of the other and will not get out of line or tilt, according to Steven Hillier

"Anonymous. Define hip. We obviously have different ideas here"

Don, regardless of how you choose to define hip, two simple facts remain:

1) If your thigh is at a 45 degree angle and your torso is vertical, then somewhere between your thigh and your torso there is bend totalling 45 degrees.

2) The woman in picture two has her thigh nearly vertical, despite her shin beeing at quite an angle.

If you haven't figure it out yet, she is doing something very different than what you do. I happen to consider what she is doing much closer to being right and what you are doing severly wrong - but at least you could admit that there is a big difference between what you advocate and what she is doing!

Anonymous. If you can look at the last picture. Imagine the feet are together and on the toes with the same bend of the knees. Now lower a bit more or as to your liking. Which gives us the back of the head over the heel which would put the body weight a litte further forward. If you had in your hands a bottle of Coke held to the seems of your trousers they will remain with the bottom of bottle still facing the floor. Didn't you do any P. T. at school. The angle of the back leg on three looks to be at the correct angle if the feet were together . All of that just to explain that the knees bend and the body doesn't