This thread is going forever and not getting anywhere. We need to break it down to a simple technique called "STRIDE" and understand how the body weight is trasfered from foot to foot. Once this is understood, a simple fwd walk implies to any dance say waltz quickstep covering different step patters.
Jonathan has posted something about stride a long time back. so please go back and undertand what stride is.

"Continue to move backward , draw the RF foot back to the LF foot, at the same time slowely lower the LF heel to the floor, making sure that it does not touch the floor untill the RF foot is level with it."

The real confusion is that this sentence is applicable to flat walks (for which it was written) and more or less to rising walks, but is dangerously inapplicable to lowering walks. In lowering walks, the receiving heel must be on the ground quite early in the process of closing the feet - some would say before the closing even begins.

Anonymous. Without copying the whole of the writting, which you can find for yourself. The Administrator wrote on the 2.25.2004.
Some teachers seem to be under the impression that the body should always be over the moving foot. Others believe the leg should move first.
To get the right blend ,you should keep the following axiom in mind. The leg and the body always move at the same time, but never at the same speed.
The opposite problem is stifling one's stride by not allowing the foot to get far ahead of the body. There is nothing wrong with having the feet well ahead of the body, so long as they don't move to quickly into position. A good general ratio is two to one. That is to say the feet move approximately twice as fast as the body ( although this is an extreme oversimplification. If you think of trying to stay approximately half- way between your feet, and you never allow your foot to move without the body.
I generely find that students who take short strides are suffering from one of a couple of problems. (1) Moving foot not getting out ahead of the body, as discussed above. (2) Lack of foot pressure from the standing foot. or (3) Incorrect poise or body shape.
A good excercise to fix this problem is to test yourself on how long you can keep your moving foot in motion. Start from a standing position and begin to move your body and foot forward. For every 2-3 inches the foot is in motion, count one two three. See if you can get all the way to 10 before the foot takes weight. Do this excercise for forward steps and backward steps and so on.
Take for example step 3 of a Foxtrot Reverse Turn. Lady is moving forward and the man backwards.Typically you will see the man seem to get knocked back onto a very short stride, due to poor foot pressure and poise. Shifting the poise forward allows him to stay on the foot longer and use better foot pressure to allow him to move the leg ahead of the body. And again counting inches as in the excercise above can help you to determine whether you've shifted your poise enough to make a difference.
Finished Quoting. And the body still has a split weight position whilst in motion. Try the excercise above and you tell me. Please read above. Quote. If you think of trying to stay approximately half way between your feet and never allow the foot to move without the body.

"Anonymous. Without copying the whole of the writting, which you can find for yourself. The Administrator wrote"

Quickstep, the administrator is not God.

"There is nothing wrong with having the feet well ahead of the body, so long as they don't move to quickly into position."

Go look at the videos on this site, and you will see that in fact there is a problem with this teaching - the man's thigh ends up lifting the lady's body to a strained position.

Anonymous. Ballroom Dancing is an Art and not a Science. You will never see a book titled the Science of Ballroom Dancing. By this I mean nobody can say who is right and who is wrong unless it clashes withe Basic Technique. You or your teacher I would suggest, with a side on view on video may be suprised at where your body actually is at the extent of your stride. You don't even have to use a video. Let somebody stand to your side and tell you exactly where your body is at the time your front heel and your back toe is at its full stride.
You said that in the Feather Step on the video clip the mans thigh is lifting the lady to a strained position. You've heard of Sir Bill Irvine. Quote In the Foxtrot he stresses on the accentuation of Third beat, this is from his Silhouette, Music and Movement Lecture given in Singapore. Could this be the lift that you think you see which is by design and not accident. The other lecture was by John Wood. I have a shortend copy of both. Written by Dr. S. H. Wong of M Y Dance Club.

Is Bill knighted?

Curious. Yes . For over ten years now.

"You said that in the Feather Step on the video clip the mans thigh is lifting the lady to a strained position. You've heard of Sir Bill Irvine. Quote In the Foxtrot he stresses on the accentuation of Third beat, this is from his Silhouette, Music and Movement Lecture given in Singapore. Could this be the lift that you think you see which is by design and not accident."

No, this is a clear and definite flaw which occurs into step 1 of the feather video, not step two (which would be beat 3). At the time of the problem, the man's knee is still quite bent - the issue is that the thigh is swinging forward too soon - the knee must not get ahead of the body until quite late in the stride. Another part of the cause is that the lady is not moving her weight back in her right foot. To review, once her feet pass her weight must be fully in her heel, then starting to move off the heel and release the toe.

Anonymous. I can't see anything on the clip that I am not seeing most of the time. The lady has an exaggerated poise. These days that is what you will see all of the time. Gone are the days when the lady was stuck to the man like a Limpet mine, and from there didn't move. There is also the fact that no two couples will ever look exactly the same. Each couple will interpret differently to the others.
For those who don't know Blackpool is on at this momment, till the 2nd June. In the later rounds each dance is judged individually. That means that in the final six couples are on the floor for the Waltz. As it finishes all will leave the floor. For the Tango six numbers will be called. It happens regulaly that one who was in the Waltz will not be recalled for the Tamgo. It is possible that the first couple dropped may be recalled for the next dances. As the winners are anounced
1 - 6. The same for the next dance through to the fourth ( no V Waltz). This way the eventual winner is judged on their showing in each individual dance. It is possible but highly improbable that the couple who danced the Tango only could be the winner of that dance. They would most likely be placed 7th overall. Also at Blackpool, no vocalists. There is always the possibility that the dance could go to 3 minutes if needed.

"I can't see anything on the clip that I am not seeing most of the time. "

Then you need to start watching better dancers more carefully.

On the feather here, midway into step one, the man's thigh swings forwad and collides with the lady's body. If his motion were coordinated, his knee would not be getting ahead of his body until much later. The other half of the problem is that the lady is not moving back through her standing foot soon enough - she is continuing to move her knee against the direction of travel and as a result blocking his way. In short, they are not moving their bodies enough early enough for the amount of lowering they are using - an extremely common problem.