COULD YOU PLEASE TELL ME WHY IN THE FOXTROT, IN THE FEATHER STEP, STEP 2 IS TOE AND YET IN THE THREE STEP, STEP 2 IS HEEL, TOE.?

PLLLEEEAAASSSEE x

"COULD YOU PLEASE TELL ME WHY IN THE FOXTROT, IN THE FEATHER STEP, STEP 2 IS TOE AND YET IN THE THREE STEP, STEP 2 IS HEEL, TOE.?"

The feather step has different rise and fall than the three step, so the footwork has to be different as well.

That's the obvious answer, but it doesn't explain WHY? (Which I'm still thinking about...)

The difference, BTW, is that man rises e/o 1 in FS (and is thus up (T) on 2). In the 3S, he is down on 1 & 2, rising e/o 2, so is H, HT.

i woud be interested in getting an intelligent answer to this too.


i must admit before i knew better i used to rise e/o 1 on the three step, and, to be honest, it still feels a bit unnatural to do it the correct way.

i wonder if it is some kind of historical thing resulting from step 1 of the 3-step being regarded as part of the preceding figure - as it still is in some manuals - as opposed to having a more physical explanation.

An interesting experiment would be to see how the three step feels with rise a step earlier, but the lady still using TH and NFR as she must on continued backwards steps in foxtrot.

This probably doesn't work so well in the inline, right-side-leading condition of the three step.

To make it work you would probably abandon the lady's NFR and end up with more of a hovering step than a travelling one, and most likely you would decide to take the subsequent travel in a slightly different direction - in other words, you would re-invent the hover telemark. That is after all what the american style people would use in place of a three step.

i agree that the hover telemark alternative is better but the scenario you describe (ie a three step with rise step earlier with nfr for the lady) stil doesn't seem particularly bad to me - i'm not sure if i think that scenario is any worse particulary than the actual three step as is, and to the extent that i do, i find it difficult to pinpoint why.

"i agree that the hover telemark alternative is better but the scenario you describe (ie a three step with rise step earlier with nfr for the lady) stil doesn't seem particularly bad to me - i'm not sure if i think that scenario is any worse particulary than the actual three step as is, and to the extent that i do, i find it difficult to pinpoint why."

I think that if you actually try it with the rise early like that, you will trip over the lady. To fix that, you'd probably have to change the energy direction enough that what you would end up with would be better described as a hover telemark than as a three step with early rise.