Wouldn't it be safe to say that the sign & is refereing to the action within the steps. Apart from that I can not see in any of the charts anything refering to an " and " count being half a beat. There is a further reference to this matter. If the timing of the bounce action and the timing associated foot movements are combined it becomes... it goes on to say about the knee action 'and' after beat one continues while the 1/4 beat is taken. All very confusing don't you think.
As I said in the beginning. The timing can send you insane you know.

Hi to All,

/*... it goes on to say about the knee action 'and' after beat one continues while the 1/4 beat is taken. All very confusing don't you think. As I said in the beginning.*/

Don. If you trained to take a professional examination in Latin, you would have no difficulty in understanding. There must be plenty of qualified Latin teachers who, if they could be bothered, would explain that to you.

Lluv2Dance. If I were asked taking a professional examination the timing or a Reverse or Natural Basic Movement or a Whisk or a Volta or a Boto FogoI would be wrong if I didn't answer 3/4 1/4 1. If I counted any of those with a 1/2 beat I would be wrong. Wouldn't I.

The technique book for all societies clearly states that those figures you mention do have a 3/4, 1/4, 1, division. So that's the beat values you must give.

Only in a Fellowship examination could you venture to give an opinion and that would be at the discretion used by an examiner.

Having said that! I've nibbled at your bait, so go on ...

If a Fellowship examiner at his discretion accepts anything other than in your first paragraph He should hand in his cards.

Don,
About 3 years ago, on this message board, you wrote:

/* Please remind me to never write a book. */

Well ...

I would never write a book simply because it is almost impossible to put everything that is needed to say into a few words instead of having something with more pages than Gone with the Wind.

"I've lost count the times that you have been corrected on this phonetic count:
'and' is an half beat.
'a' is a quarter beat."

Yes, this is standard musical notation, not just for dancing.

However, to be specific, 'a' is the last quarter beat before the next downbeat.

Full subdivision in quarter beats would be:

1 e & a 2 e & a 3....

(a music teacher would use + rather than & as it's easy to scribble on the page, but the pronounciation is 'and')