Anonymous. Bend the knee . Point to the side. That is your distance. Bend it some more. You will go further. A beginner who doesn't bend at all, the same rule will apply. Try to go outside your range will result in loss of rise. If you can go to the side with a larger step, how high on the toes are you as the feet come together. If like me you have written the telephone number, in case they get lost, under the shoe on the instep, it should be visible when I am on my toes. If you think todays dancer do not get that high on their toes I suggest you have another look.

Quickstep, all of your arguments are irrelevant because you must not take a step withouth preexisting momentum in that direction, and the size of the step is deteremined by the momentum more than by the standing leg action.

Anonymous. The standing leg is where the stored energy is. The more the knee bends the more energy there is to use. Like an elasic band , the more turns = an increase in energy.If you want to see how much the knee is used to generate speed, put the videos in slow motion and watch. The push by the way is not completed untill the whole of the foot is used right to the tip of the toe. Again look at those feet in slow motion.

Incorrect - there is no enduring energy storage in a bent leg. There is a very brief storage, but only on the order of "bounce" duration.

Ordinarily, if your leg is bent you must have either converted your potential energy to kinetic energy, or else lost it. If you don't plan on converting potential energy to kinetic, don't bend your knee. If you only plan on converting a little bit of energy, only bend your knee a little bit...

Anonymous. Do you have any tapes you can look at. It would appear not. I suggest you try to get a copy of an IDSF European or World Final where at least two of the dances are solo, meaning each pair perform on their own for the full one minute twenty. Before they dance as a group. We have had on cable , which I copied. All of 2002 through to 2005. I would suggest that in the one held in Russia ,the solo Foxtrot by Soale and Cersoli is one too watch for everything that would need to be known about the bend in the knee on the supporting foot. Richard Gleave was once asked how far would one lower. There is no limit as long as you can get up out of it. John Wood is one who gets incredibly low. If you have no tapes go to the learning center on this sight, choose Feather Step International Style. That's what it is their for. .

If you are moving like an IDSF finalist you need to bend your knees a lot. If you are moving like a hobbyist, you would be wrong to bend your knee that much, because it would not be in coordination with the other actions of your dancing.

You make a serious mistake when you try to copy some of the details of what finalists are doing, without the other details that would keep them in proportion. If you simply bend you knee that much, you loose your energy, unless as you are bending your knee you are achieving the championship body speed that would be in proportion to that amout of lowering. To do it otherwise is to be uncoordinated, and end up with your body in uncomfortable intermediate posititions which the champs coordinated dancing does not place them in.

Anonymous. Propulsion comes from the knee and thigh of the standing leg. Anne Lewis several times British Champion. As we all know that to bend the knee whether going forward or backward is to bend it towards our front, or if you like our partner. But don't get into sitting position with the bottom sticking out. We now have an angle between the foot and the knee as well as an angle between the knee and the pelvis. Now tell me what is going to be done with that bent knee and that angled thigh. Don't bother it is going to propel the body and the leg forward untill we have a straight leg at the front and the rear completely balanced on the heel and the toe. This can be confirmed by Alex Moore's technique book or any other.If you know anything about learning . It must start as being completely ignorant having no pre- existing belief of how it should be done. After arriving on a straight knee it then bends. More in the Waltz than in the Foxtrot.

"Anonymous. Propulsion comes from the knee and thigh of the standing leg. Anne Lewis several times British Champion.

No, you - and Anne if she actually said this - are mistaken.

The primary propulsion comes from gravity. In coordinated dancing, you try to maintain your energy level as constant as possible, and preserve it by converting it between potential energy of rise, and kinetic energy of movement.

There's a specific relationship between body speed and altitude that needs to be followed for efficient dancing. Lower below this curve, and you are wasting effort. Rise above it and you are wasting effort.

As a result, the correct rise and fall (and knee bend) is not absolute, but can only be determined in the context of the body speed (travel per unit of musical time) you hope to achieve.

If you simply copy the rise and fall of a championship dancer without also achieving their body speed, you are making a serious mistake - you are not dancing like them at all, because the fundamental proportion at the heart of their dancing has been broken in yours. On the other hand, if you both lower less and move less, then you could actually be dancing the same way as the champion, because you have the same relationships in your dancing as are at the heart of theirs - only the scale is smaller in yours.

Anonymous. I can assure you that Anne Lewis said that Propulsion comes from the knee and the thigh. There must be a few out there that have the same tape that I have. I would agree that we sometimes fall into a trap of using too big a step trying to get distance. I doubt that too much lowering would be the problem. To get back to body flight. If I leap from one stepping stone to another. I think I would bend my supporting knee and push. I believe my foot would lead off. I believe my foot would arrive with a knee that was slightly flexed. As I landed before my other foot arrived I would bend my knee as my body arrived over it acting as a cushion. The body flight must come from the propulsion of the standing foot which propels all of me. If I tried to move my body first I would never make it. So it is my opinion that the movement of the body is a natural movement. But teaching somebody who was dragging themself along with their front leg. To tell them to get there body weight moving might be the way to go. Otherwiose I would leave them alone as long as they pushed off the standing foot.