I am trying to learn quickstep and I was curious if anyone could explain why the man starts with his right foot? Is this common in International style dances? I am used to doing the American style dances and the man usually starts with the left foot. Thanks

The man doesn't necessarily start the dance with his right foot. He can start with whatever foot he chooses to, and in any direction. This is true of all dances.

Many (but not all) Quickstep patterns, however, begin with the man's right foot. That's just the nature of the dance, and how the patterns fit together. The American style syllabus, in contrast, has most (but not all) patterns beginning with the man's left foot. But just because a majority of patterns begin on a particular foot does not mean you need to start the dance on that foot. You can choose to start with one of the minority patterns, or simply start with a prep step.

To someone with an American style background, my advice for starting Quickstep is to first learn the basic Quarter Turn to Progressive Chasse Combo, thinking of it as the "Quickstep basic". If you start with a "prep step" forward on your left foot (count "slow"), the pattern will feel very much like the Progressive Quarter Turns (aka Junior Walk) from American style Foxtrot.

Regards,
Jonathan Atkinson
www.ballroomdancers.com

Jonathan. That is terrific how you have it that we can click onto the Basic Quickstep. This is where some of our teachers fall down and that is that on the Quarter Turn there is a quarter turn to the right and a quarter turn to the left on the Progressive Chasse to hold that position for the Lockstep which is exactly what you do in the clip.
Its the falure to explain this and not have the class recite, as they perform, so they will never forget how to show clean lines between each section.
There is a Proverb which goes something like this.
Tell me and I may remember
Show me and I may not forget
Make me do it and I will
always remember
Part 2.
If the above has been taught and the class are now going to add a Spin Turn. I think whilst practicing the Spin Turn on its own it is a big mistake to add a preperation step onto the Spin Turn or whatever move may be following the Lockstep.
If a preperation step is used a beginner may be confused and start looking for these steps in a group that is danced right through and not broken into parts. I was once in a class where this guy insisted that a Feather Step starts on the man's left foot. The teacher had to find the technique book and show this character how wrong he was. I will add this. When I first learnt to dance there was no walk in on any of the dances. In the Quickstep or the Foxtrot we had to pick up the beat and start straight in on the RF. Even today is there a prep step in the Tango or the V. Waltz. International Style. I wonder in what year it became fashionable to do a preperation step and which person introduced it. There had to be a first.

"Even today is there a prep step in the Tango"

Not unless you start with a right footed figure.

"or the V. Waltz. International Style."

Customarily often yes, if you start with right footed right turning natural turns, and no if you start with the left foot into left turning reverse turns.

And that's pretty much the pattern that applies to international and american style today - american style dancers are more likely to begin their waltz or foxtrot with a left foot figure, international style dancers to begin with a right foot figure preceded by a prep step on the left foot.

Personally, I believe this to be because the more limited swing used into left foot initial steps is more compatible with the absence of a prep step. Wheras most people are happier trying to create the larger swing of right foot natural figures by preceding them with a traveling prep step. It's a useful exercise though to learn to create a full natural figure swing while staring already on your left foot - then you can do an even better one when you do take that travelling left foot prep step

Anonymous. When I first learnt to dance as i said before there was no preperation step. What we were taught was to move our weight over the left foot but there was no step taken. The preperation was very much like most of us do on the beat of one in the Rumba. Just simply a movement of the body from one side to the other to release one of our feet for the first step. It in now way restricted our drive into the first step.

"Just simply a movement of the body from one side to the other to release one of our feet for the first step. It in now way restricted our drive into the first step."

Dancing it that way no doubt taught you about generating power as you descended off that foot (provided that unlike rumba you really did use rise and in this case fall), but there is simply no way that it could have generated the kind of power that would be possible with a prep step.

That's ultimately why we started using prep steps into natural figures - to allow for an even fuller swing. A skilled dancer should be able to generate a big swing without a progressive prep step, but if they can't generate an even bigger one with a prep step, then they do not yet understand the technique of prep steps.

Anonymous. As Shakespear would say.
" To prep or not to prep. That is the question ". It does makes for a good discussion and hopefully encourages a reader to use their common sense. If you need a preperation step to drive. Then on your next Natural Turn or a Closed Change or Spin Turn or what ever. How are you going to manage without a preperation step.

"If you need a preperation step to drive."

You shouldn't. As a skilled dancer, you must have the ability to generate a full swing by descending through the leg that you are already standing on, without a progressing prep step.

However if you cannot generate an even fuller swing with a progressive prep step (descending onto the leg and then through it), then you don't know how to do a proper prep step that could give you such benefit.

"Then on your next Natural Turn or a Closed Change or Spin Turn or what ever. How are you going to manage without a preperation step."

The whole point of the prep step is to substitute for the missing preceding figure at the start of the dance. It's to give you something to come from, in the situation where there was nothing before. The question is not how you can take a normally full action without a prep step, the question should be how you can start a dance in the middle of what should be the most continuous phase of flow from action to action. And the answer to that question is to use a prep step - which is a sort of "ending of a figure" - to lead into the first real figure.

If you get on a playground swing, do you start at bottom dead center and hope to somehow get going? No, you walk yourself backwards partway up the curve, and release your weight from there. Same idea with the prep step - we release our weight from partway up, so that by the time we pass through the low point we are already cruising right along with energy to carry into the upswing.

Yes, you can start the playground swing from a dead stop at bottom dead center by pumping with your legs alone, and you can start a ballroom figure by pushing with your legs. It's a physical challenge and you can pat yourself on the back when done. But it's not elegant, and it's not dancing.

Prep " steps " have been around for eons-- its not a new paradigm .

I was using them in the forties !-- you may not know-- but the feather for e.g. was designated SQQS at one time .

scrivener championed the cause to change it to todays rhythm .

"but the feather for e.g. was designated SQQS at one time ."

was and still is