Dave. It's not good mentioning names. But I can tell you that one of the most reveared coaches on this planet teaches this way. I would suggest you might be getting left behind a bit.

Onlooker. I have had lessons in the past with the best,but teaching has improved considerably since those days. I have learnt more about the Theory of dancing on this website in the past three months than I learnt over the past thirty years so you can't impress me with famous names .Dave Sandra the info is dated 2/24/2004

Onlooker. Please accecpt my apoligy if I was rude. The point is when a teacher leactures to a groop class he can't correct individual problems. It is a poor teacher that tell a student to make his step larger or smaller without going to the roote of the problem. The student will change the size of the step while he thinks about only, so it will never be corrected. Perhaps it's not a poor teacher but a lazy one,or one that thinks his student has no potential. Of cause I am not talking about you but in general.Cheers Dave

"A Feather Step Reverse Turn Three step. I'll stop there. For the man Preperation Step small, then, big, small, small. First of Reverse small small, small, followed by big, small, small, then big, big, small."

This is unbelievably wrong.

It is the middle step of each swing figure which is naturally large. The first step should be ordinary. The third step will be very small if it is outside partner until the dancers learn and develop the strenght to flight their body through while holding a CBMP position, at which point they can get to the point where the step sizes even out somewhat.

To continue. How many dancers do you see who try to do as big a step on their preperation step as their first step into the dance. The step has to be smaller. Making the steps small,big.
Coming into the the Reverse Turn, the lady must move out of the mans way. Not like Alex Moore's book which has the lady still holding a diagnal to the centre position. Somebody is already thinking how does the lady move out of the way . She invites the man through on the Feather Step doesn't she, and she should also on the first step of the Reverse. The man has his turn on the fourth step which allows the person going forward a straight line into their next steps. This is where the big steps small steps comes into the equation. I'll quote Anne Lewis here. BEFORE the first step of the Reverse she turns her hip towards the next alignment and does not worry about where the first step, which is backwards is placed.
Just as a side note. We have an excellent second hand book shop not far from me. I took a look in, they have a Alex Moore fourth edition 1939 with some photos inside. If you could see the poise in those days you would die laughing. At the back of the book is a section on how the Rumba was being performed at that time. The photos, are of Alex and partner, the poise is an absolute joke. We have come a long long way since then. Having said that, hats off to those early pioneers.

Onlooker. What Anne Lewis said is "outdated". Take a look at Mirko Gozzoli and the Hiltons teaching vidios. Alessia Betti does not take her hip out of the man's way, she dances her right leg well under the body DC like she is dancing CBMP. It seems you do not understand the modern concept of holding the shape into the first step of the next figure. This is due "in part" to the lady being on the man's right side. My wife was taught to do it Anne Lewis's way and we have been trying for years to change. The biggest comlaint that the lady's have is that we do not put them on their HEAL. If my wife steps to center I have to follow her,this turns us to early and makes it impossable to swing my LF under the body for a quality sway. Get With It.

There are two seperate issues - timing of CBM and curvature of the step.

Anne lewis seems to be arguing for CBM while the moving foot is still moving, which would be consistent with Alex Moore and most of the famous British authorities. She does not seem to be arguing for curving the step, though for some reason Onlooker quoted her to support that mistake...

If I recall the Hiltons do not curve the steps either, but may use a later CBM timing than many of the others. Some of their students have taken this to the impractical extreme, delaying the body rotation so long that it contributes nothing to the ease of the first step, which is already placed by the time they've rotated much. On most couples the resulting lead with the wrong side throughout the first step looks uncomfortable and ugly, though a few manage to give it some athletic appeal... still, it's not the grace of classic modern done by someone who understands it.

Would anybody like to try giving as big a step on the first of the Feather and as big as on the first of the Reverse. In my opinion that will send the lady back, and now we expect her to turn. To me as a lady it would indicate that he is going to keep going forward. I'm suprised that females have not come into this argument. Do you feel that you are being led into a turn, or is it that you know the routine that gets you by. Do your heel turn just happen or is it a struggle

"Would anybody like to try giving as big a step on the first of the Feather and as big as on the first of the Reverse. In my opinion that will send the lady back, and now we expect her to turn. To me as a lady it would indicate that he is going to keep going forward."

This touches a tangent to why the first step should not be big - the role of the first step is to prepare an action that will unfold over the next two.

That's true in terms of movement - step two is the big one, not step one.

But it's also true in terms of the turn. The actual change of direction happens between step 2 and step 3 (for a 3/8 turn figure), but it must be preceded by CBM occuring during the course of step 1. The CBM is a rotation of the body WITHOUT changing the track of movement - it's a preview of the turn that not only makes the turn into a smooth and flowing thing, but establishes clearly that a turn is what is being danced.

If you wait to make the CBM rotation until the first step is already placed (as is in vogue with kids these days) then the lady does not get a lot of indication of the turn. These kids mostly danced fixed routines anyway, but one can learn to follow such a turn.

However, if you do it the right way, with the CBM during the transit of the foot into the first step, the lady has to be used to the feeling of having her body rotated relative to her travel. If she has not yet experienced that, she'll probably jump out of the way to the side, and her partner will slingshot around her into a short, overturned and ugly finish.

Does this descpition of CBM also apply to the waltz natural turn. Mirko Gozzoli starts his waltz NT facing the LOD into his preperation step