If the Body moves the Legs more than the legs move the body is it possable that some of us are using to much push or working to hard trying to move the body with the feet instead of letting the body weight and swing do the work for us?

You're focusing on the wrong concern.

The body moves the moving leg, and the standing leg moves the body. What doesn't really have a role and needs to be avoided most of the time is the moving leg moving itself.

Suomynona.I don't think i agree that the body moves the standing leg. Not unless you are writting about a Rumba Walk. If you like watch a Greyhound or an animal in full flight. Or a Hop Step and Jump athlete. Don't they compress then leap. I can think of one that does let the body lead and that is a diver, diving off a platform, even then the legs have done most of the work.Watch one of the most beautifull of runners , a Cheetah doesn't the back legs catch up to the front legs perfectly balanced
under its body it compresses. The front legs move, if they don't it will fall on its face. We have only two legs but ìsn't the action the same. The legs through the feet and the knees move the body, or give it flight.

Looking in.I misquoted but Suomy said. The standing leg moves the body. Dave

Dave.There are so many differnt parts to just a simple drive which gets us onto the first Quick (if we are doing Foxtrot ). There has to be a slowing down towards the end of the drive which some would call light and shade. Which is a natural law. By that I mean if you fired a bullet and it travelled without hitting anything it will slow down and drop to the ground. It will be losing speed from the time it left the barrel So do we untill we flex, recharge bend or whatever you can call it. Ready to fire away again , which is normaly on beat 1. or a Slow. But as it has been pointed out before, It's been argued about since 1922.

The body and legs work together. I don't think it's possible to separate out the work they do.

Phil. You are Quite right but unfortunatly many dancers unknowenly do and that is the problem,thats why we need to understand how the legs and body work together. The back foot moves the body ,the body swings the upper leg,the weight of the foot swings from the knee. I recently realized that is was trying to swing the whole leg into position (to much tension in the whole leg) and not letting the foot swing freely from the knee. A huge difference in the softness and quality of movement

I think that if we apply the basic technique of rise and fall we are not going to be far wrong. Remembering that if we do passing steps in the Waltz the technique of the Foxtrot will be used. There are four different rise and falls .We can get by for now with two of them.

Quickstep. What are the four types of rise and fall If we look at the swing path as taking place from the top of the previous figure to the top of the next figure it represents the bottom half of a ball or the swing path of a park swing. Looking at it in this light gives a different meaning to rise and fall as explained in the book. Our shoulders would only be straight (parallel to the floor) for a breeth moment as we pass through the transitional phrase of the swing path from a sway in one direction into the next. The actual (straight) in the (NT) and curved feather taking place between the first and second step. ::-

Dave Glad you brought the swing thing up. If you think about it we are not like a playground swing which has its centre fixed. Our centre, ( thats were the swing is hanging ) moves. The swing does not. In other words it is wrong to liken it to a pendulum swing.Wasn't it Galileo who held a great ball and let it swing, stood his ground to prove it would not hit him on its return. He could probably have given us all the maths that would make our swing brilliant.