Jonathan. A question for you. According to the technique book in the Modern waltz, the first step into a Natural Turn is rise at the end of one, which is on the first beat. But i see couples lowering at the beginning of one, then try to rise at the end of that beat. They appear to dig themselves into a hole which is hard to get out of. Or they don't lower enough on three and try to do it all on one. Surely i am as low as ever i am likely to be on the third beat of the bar of music i am leaving. If we use the analogy of a child on a swing, with my arms above my head grasping the seat of the swing, that is three. At the bottom of the swing is and. As i push upwards , there is one. In short without three there is no one. This of course is if i am trying to do the step correctly. Now it begins to get a bit tricky. The person on the inside of the turn, who in this case is the lady, has an entirely different technique. NFR on one. I will leave that one for you.

"i see couples lowering at the beginning of one, then try to rise at the end of that beat."

Are you seeing an actual "lowering" fo the body or a compression into a foot in order to rise?

Beginner dancers often see a move differently from what it actually is. They may be attempting to dance what they think they see rather than what is actually done.

For instance, in Waltz instead of having a slightly bent knee as "neutral" and compressing up, some beginners will have a straight leg as neutral and will bounce down, then come up. Because they don't "see" the relaxes knee and the ankle pressure taking them up, they think a straight leg is all the farther up they can get, so they have to do a deep knee bend to get any change in level.

I have seen this in Beginners in Nightclub 2 Step also, which has ankle compression and rise in it also. Instead of relaxing into a bent leg and compressing up, they have straight legs as their highest point and bounce down to get change in level instead of compressing up.

I attended a lecture a few years ago given by Steven Hillier. He said that he keeps his upper body up as he lowers. The lowering is through the knees and ankles. If you allow the upper body to lower it will always beat your knees. Then we know what will stick out. He also went on to say. "That as he rises he keeps the upper body down ". In other words, I am still quoting, "He stays up to come down, and stays down to come up. All the work is being done through your undercarriage ".

I've been taught to lower on beat 1, start to rise on beat 2 and continue to rise into beat 3, lowering at the end of beat 3.
Many dancers (myself included) can get into the habit of 'bobbing' up and down because the rise is too abrupt.
I remember buying a video by Marcus Hilton (ex-world champion) and playing the start of his slow waltz in slow-motion, frame-by-frame. I was stunned (at the time) by the amount of knee bend he used.
The transition between beat 3 and the next beat 1 has been a 'problem' for me. On the one hand, the lowering at the end of beat 3 offers a smooth transition into the loewring on the next beat 1. On the other hand, the end of beat 3 is meant to be a 'gathering' step.
I'm not the most experienced of dancers, and i'm looking forward to Jonathan's reply

Phil, I read an article in a UK Dance Publication. The well known professional who wrote this said. That Victor Silvester introduced the Natural Turn in December 1922, that was the day that the Modern Waltz as we know it today was born. She in this article said that today 70 odd years later experts are still arguing how it should be done. So what hope is there for us poor mortals. I will add this though. According to the technique book there is no mention of going down on one, only rise at the end of one. As there is a lowering on the previouse three, I take that to mean that I am already down, so why would I go down again. I did pose this question to a visiting professional who said You only lower once. I then asked how low do I go. Answer. Has low as you like, provided you can rise comfortably and with style. Happy Dancing