Please advice the correct rhythm of Foxtrot.

Teresa Mason taught as Slow-Slow- Quick-Quick.

Carl Plozo taught as Slow-Quick-Quick.

Which one is correct ? When I learnt it in Hong Kong some 40 years ago it was Slow-Slow-Quick-Quick.

Some how I feel that the Slow-Quick-Quick rhythm duplicates the Rhumba, is my feeling correct?

Thanks.

Both SQQ and SSQQ are correct foxtrot rhythms, but for different figures.

SQQ is most common rhythm for international foxtrot and American foxtrot at silver level and above. There's a very superficial similarity to international rumba timing, but the official timing of rumba describes the legs while the official timing of foxtrot describes more the body action, so they are actually quite different timings to dance.

SSQQ is the base rhythm for the figures of bronze American foxtrot and the "rhythm foxtrot" that sometimes used to be taught to beginners elsewhere. This happens to duplicate the rhythm of single-time swing, and there is some overlap in the music suitable for the two dances.

Whenever i'm social dancing and a rhumba is played (which isn't often) i love to dance a soft, slow foxtrot to the music. It feels nice.

If the introduction step on the Feather Step in the International style of Foxtrot is taken you would have s s q q then into the Reverse Turn . This introduction step which is taken on the mans left foot should be on the beats of 23 with the music leaving the first step 12 to dance onto with the right foot. We have been through this before several times. You should dance 1234 and not 3412 with the music. 1 is the heavy beat, 2 is lighter, 3 is heavier but lighter than 1, and 4 is light. This allows you to know which is the first beat, otherwise it would be like a machine gun. Just listen to the music. There is also eight bar phrasing in there too. To understand what you are dancing to count 1234 2234 3234 4234 all the way to eight. If you can do that you are counting beats and bars of music correctly. To be a great dancer no matter which style or dance within that style, you should be able to count as above.

Seems like you left out beat 4 of the introductory measure.

I'd take the prep step on beat 4, or at the earliest 3. Certainly not on 2!

Yes you are right that should have read 34 and then 12. Sorry . I should have checked my writting before sending.If you are interested, a former international giving a lecture, had us doing a quick on beat one with the left foot. The first of the Feather on the second beat which was also a quick followed by the normal two quicks. I wonder what next.

I've seen that (prep step on 1 followed by SQQ in the same measure) but only on a couple were it looked extremely hurried and not the least bit like foxtrot. That was an impression reinforced by the rest of their opening wall though - it might work better if the figure after the initial feather was SQQ instead of being something that also needed accelerated timing, in order to avoid the kind of harried look I saw.

Anonymous. As you may be aware a Natural Turn or a Change of Direction with its three slows will bring you out of rhythm. To overcome this there are several ways of altering the timing. To add another slow which would bring you back, is much too lengthy and will only result in eventually getting a couple run into. I am reading from the older technique book. I doubt that is has been altered.

This seems like a rather different topic than doing the prep and feather as four quicks in one measure, which is what I had responded to.

Anyway, for things that would go off rhythm the obvious answer is to match them with another odd figure to create a group that fits the rhythm. You could do that by modifying timings, but a syllabus competitor would be restricted to creative combinations of the timings actually given in the book - inserting extra time in a figure is not allowed in those events.