Counting is nothing less than attempt by a dancer to backlead the orchestra.

How do you backlead a CD.

"How do you backlead a CD."

You try, and ignore the fact that you are failing.

Watch any group of dancers for a while, and you'll see plenty of examples.

I asked a simle question. i did not ask for a snide answer. How can i backlead a CD. or an orchestra which is playing

What nonsense. Apart from anything else, the English language contains no verb to backlead.

I count all the time: I am relating my theoretical knowledge of the steps of each figure to what my feet are doing, and I am often counting SSQQ, or 12&3 as I dance. I don't have the slightest expectation that if I do it loud enough someone will change the speed of the music (recorded or live), and when I'm doing it very quietly, I am often helping my novice partner to maintain the proper rhythm.

I am listening very carefully to the music all the time, to maintain synchronicity with the basic pulse, and for opportunities to reflect the musical phrasing in my dancing.

Stuart. I do exactly as you. I know what my steps are and I count the beats and dance on time with the music. Only less than two hours ago I asked a former 7th in the world Professional Latin Lady. Dancer. Does she or did she count the beats as she danced. The answer was I counted all the time and every time. She went on to say that the way you count will reflect on the interpretation of the dance. If you count sharp that is the way you will dance . If you count oozy that is the way you will dance even though the music is exactly the same .Which is backed up by a lecture I went to by Espen Salsberg who said that if the music being played was too soft , this was a Rumba. He would count tic a tic a tic a tic a. Which is 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and . He really hit those solid beats on 2 3 4. Keep Counting.

I genuinely find it very hard to believe that people are dancing, in comps or socially, and counting all the time (even inside their heads).
Maybe when practising new groups of figures or putting together a new rountine or working on some specific technical point.
Are you saying that if you were dancing socially or in a comp a group of figures that you'd been dancing for 6 months or more, that you would actually count the beats.
On the point of the counting affecting the way you dance. Maybe. But i think it's possibly the other way round. The character of the music would determmine everything. You wouldn't count a foxtrot in a staccato way, as you might a tango.

I can only speak for myself, but when I say I count "all the time", I don't mean that I am doing it continuously, but that it features in my dancing very regularly.

I agree that the way to respond to the pulse in foxtrot is a key part of the character of the dance, but many dancers of modest ability struggle to find the right rhythmic expression, although as Alex Moore says, it can be learned, even if it is then contrived. It is not for nothing that foxtrot is usually reckoned as the hardest of the ballroom dances to master, but I think it is also the most rewarding.

I seriously doubt that the rhythm of the dance can be expressed correctly unless you can first hear the music's underlying pulse with complete clarity, and then have sufficient dance experience and technique to appear to be dancing with the unhurried and smooth movement that characterises the dance. Never on the beat, but always in touch with it.

I went into a Hearing Clinic and asked .Is it possible for a person to lose to the ability to hear certain frequencies of sound. This was the answer. Mostly men because of industrial type noises they can be subjected to. I thought this could be awkward, if the ability to hear the low fequency were affected and the high was perfect.

"I thought this could be awkward, if the ability to hear the low fequency were affected and the high was perfect.

Kind of off topic, but it's usually the other way around - losing the high frequency but keeping the low.

Missing low frequency - first suspect would be a sound system with poor response down there.