I've learn it the right thing when I watched the ballroom dvd collection. You are right, dance is like a social conversation. As a lady the man will surely be the one to lead but if the man knows nothing about dancing then you will gonna do it.

www.ballroomdancereviews.com

jazdiva. I would like to point out that the basic technique on for instance, a Walk Forward or a Toe Heel are the same whether you are doing the Smooth Style or the International. Make sure you know exactly how those steps are done. On a Walk. When should the heel of the standing foot atart to leave the floor. Any Technique Book will tell you how it should be done.Good Luck.

"Jazdiva. I would like to point out that the basic technique on for instance, a Walk Forward or a Toe Heel are the same whether you are doing the Smooth Style or the International. Make sure you know exactly how those steps are done. On a Walk. When should the heel of the standing foot atart to leave the floor. Any Technique Book will tell you how it should be done.Good Luck."

Indeed the basic actions are about the same. However the reference to the textbook is rather mistaken. No one but the person who posted it need read the remainder of this.

Alas, situations where a walk as literally described in the textbook occur in dance figures are rare to almost non-existent. (except in tango, but then that is a different kind of walk with a different description)

What dance figures use are modifications of walks, modifications which change precisely these kinds of details. So for example when the heel of the standing foot should leave the floor in the 3-to-1 transition is quite different than when it should in the 1-to-2 transition.

The reason there is a description of a generic walk in the textbook is twofold: to provide an exercise of practice of generic physical skills, and to provide a common starting point for discussion of the various modifications that are needed for various applications in actual dancing.

To understand why there must be modifications is actually quite simple. When we walk down the street, or as described in the textbook exercise, each step ends in the exact same position in which it started, only mirror imaged for the other foot. So we can walk L, R, L, R over and over again with no evolution, no development of a trend. This hardly ever occurs in dancing, instead dancing is about cyclic trends where we build something up over a number of steps, resolve it, and start again. As a result, each step ends in a fundamentally different state than it started in - we have built up more than we had on the previous step, or we have just resolved what we started with and are ready to begin building anew. Pretty much the only time in dancing when you can repeate two steps over again without any evolution is something like a weave or grapevine action... and there you are going along softly on the balls of feet, hardly the walk described in the book. Or if you take something out of actual dancing that at first looks like it might be a textbook walk - say the man's right foot in the three step - and actual analyze it, you'll find that there's been an evolutionary development over the course of the step. You couldn't simply repeat it, on the left foot and then again on the right, because the ending state has gained qualities fundamentally incompatible with the starting state due to the progress towards building a three step that you've had to make during this step.

Anonymous. You have been told or you have read that a Walk in Dancing is simply an exagerated Walk. Isn't that correct. The compression of the knee over the standing foot and the driving action is the main difference. After that it is an action that we do all day every day.
Stepping to the side as on the second step of a Reverse Turn in the Foxtrot is from a toe to a toe.( a raised platform )
All we need to know on now on that Basic information is how to do a toe and lower which is called TH.
Three Step is only two heel leads followed by a TH. Right side leading with slight sway to the left as per Guy Howard.
Learn early in dancing how to perform a extended Wave in the Foxtrot over about 8 bars of music.. This gives the man a chance to practise how to and when to lower the supporting heel to the floor, which should be only as the moving foot passes. And the lady, she has a chance to practise what is the mans Feather and Three Steps.
Question . Why is it that when going backwards it is neccessary to lower the supporting heel only as the moving foot passes.
Answer .The moving foot is trapped and even though it is slight it would be necessary to tilt the hip to allow it an unrestricted path to travel. Also it stops the lady from falling backwards . Steven Hannah former British Champion 1990.

"Anonymous. You have been told or you have read that a Walk in Dancing is simply an exagerated Walk. Isn't that correct."

As has been explained numerous times to your numerous screen names over the years:

1) A walk in the textbook is a type of walk

2) The walk in the text book basically does not occur in dancing, instead, it is a common starting point from which the various things that do occur in dancing CRITICALLY differ.

"Three Step is only two heel leads followed by a TH."

Two VERY DIFFERENT heel leads however. Neither one of which quite matches the textbook walk. Understanding the three step is ultimately about understanding how and why each of those is different from the generic walk in the textbook.

"Question . Why is it that when going backwards it is neccessary to lower the supporting heel only as the moving foot passes."

Answer: it's not. Sometimes it is advantageous to do this, and sometimes it is very counterproductive to do it.

"Answer .The moving foot is trapped and even though it is slight it would be necessary to tilt the hip to allow it an unrestricted path to travel."

Wrong. You, and whoever fed you that line, forgot that the knees bend - and do so substantially more today than in the dancing of previous generations, which makes the inaccuracy of this claim no longer something that can be ignored.

"Also it stops the lady from falling backwards."

Proper poise of the body and timing of body weight is what prevents falling backwards. Proper timing of the moving foot is something different, which must advance or retard in comparison to that for different applictions.

These are the differences between memorizing a few generic rules which have little literal application and obstinately sticking to them even where they obviously fail, versus actually seeking to understand dancing in all of its real-world nuances.

Anonymous. Traditional English Examination technique ISTD tells us that we must maintain a certain amount of pressure on the foot we are standing on so that the heel doesn't lower completely untill the weight is fully arrived over it. Are you going to say that is correct. Yes or No.
If your answer is no please state where your information has come from.
I do like people who make major statements and who are willing to supply from where or from who they are quoting.
Incidently. The only way that knee could bend enough to go through unrestricted would be if the standing leg was straight. And that we know is also wrong.

"Traditional English Examination technique ISTD tells us"

Whatever your name is this week, the traditional examination technique is a starting point for the study of dance - it is not the ultimate answer, especially when you develop physical aspects of dancing far beyond the scope imagined by its authors.

To be specific, when you change the amount of rise and fall to make much more use of descent into the knees, the foot will need to be flat on the floor earlier in comparison to the passing of the moving foot than when you don't. The vast majority of today's dancers now employ a dynamic that makes this, rather than the book timing, the most advisable.

That's not to say that there is license to lower the heel too soon - only that there is a need to lower the heel at the appropriate time, and that careful examination of the dynamics actually being danced will determine when this is for the case in question.

"Incidently. The only way that knee could bend enough to go through unrestricted would be if the standing leg was straight."

Not true, as anyone who spends 30 seconds trying will easily discover.

Anonymous. you just dont seem to understand the Basic principles of Ballroom dancing. As your weight arrive on the standing leg it should bend. This is going forward or backward. This as nothing to do with the timing the music is being played at. It wouldn't matter if there was no music being played. You if, you are a trained dancer, will not lower the standing heel to the floor when going backwards untill the moving foot draws level. If you did lower the heel to the floor too early you would be back weighted and would loose contact with your partner as well as pulling him forward and off balance.. That's if you had any in the first place which I would very much doubt if you dance as you write. Please dont show your ignorance by disagreeing with any of the above.These are not just my thoughts but are documented indisputable cold hard facts. Look in any technique book or Alex Moore page 13 and tell me that he is wrong. Or do as anyone here can do . Go to youtube. Pick your favourite dancers and watch.
You or anybody else who wishes to improve this part of their dancing . Why not go to Learn the Dances on this site choosing the International Foxtrot. The Feather Step will do . Then try to match the foot action you can see..

"Anonymous. you just dont seem to understand the Basic principles of Ballroom dancing."

No, it is you who do not understand that the application of these principles means you will be using different details for different purposes. The rules you love to quote without understanding are the starting point to the search for understanding - but they are often not the advisable answer for a particular purpose.

"You if, you are a trained dancer, will not lower the standing heel to the floor when going backwards untill the moving foot draws level."

This is a perfect example of your inability to adapt the technique to the various situations in dancing. What you have quoted is sometimes the right answer and sometimes the wrong one - but because you refuse to see and think, you will never discover when it is right and when it is wrong.

"If you did lower the heel to the floor too early you would be back weighted and would loose contact with your partner"

If you lowered the heel too early, yes. But it is not the passing of the moving foot that defines too early, it is the progress of the action overall. You need to learn to identify when the right time for the heel to lower is, and when the right time for the moving foot to move is - both in the cases where they might coincide, but especially in the cases where they differ. And you need to learn to feel this in your body, not to read or think it.

"Look in any technique book or Alex Moore."

As I've pointed out to you many times, the description of the timing in a walk action does not literally apply to any situation in dancing. Instead, it is the starting point from which all actual dance actions DIVERGE. You will not be a dancer until you understand why each of them needs to be different from this generic starting case.

To become competetive at the Bronze level: plan on at least 30 - 40 hours of private lessons PER DANCE. Plan on at least that much time practicing outside of private lessons. Takes about 2 years (consistent) for the average person. If you want to keep it social and you want to be competent plan on roughly half the time.

My definition for competent is being able to dance with a variety of partners in a variety of spaces, comfortably. Obviously faster learners and those with natural abilities take even less time.