This is the foxtrot routine an ISTD fellow teacher sets for beginner class:

Feather Step
Reverse turn, lady outside
Three Step
Curve Feather
Back Feather
Three Step
Feather Step
Change of Direction (making a full turn facing DC of new LOD, thus repeating the line again)

I would consider this a bit too difficult for beginner. Any comments and suggestion would be welcome.

I also invite senior dancers contribute dance routine in this forum, so that the less experienced may benefit from studying the routines.

Have a nice time and Happy dancing!

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Skipper

I agree, that's too difficult for beginners. The Curved Feather to Back Feather is gold syllabus. It shouldn't be in a beginner, bronze syllabus routine. How do you follow a Back Feather with a Three Step? You're doing a Feather Finish in between? I think that should be written. I don't think the Reverse Turn (with Feather Finish), Lady Outside is syllabus either. It's probably being done to avoid the lady's heel turn. I guess that's OK if you're not in a competition that's being invigilated where you can get disqualified for dancing non-syllabus figures. And the Change of Direction would be 1/2 turn, not a full turn, right? You're reversing direction with a 180 degree turn, not doing a complete 360 degree turn to face the same way you started, right?. For fun this routine is probably OK, but it avoids heel turns, a key aspect of foxtrot, and has gold syllabus figures in there. I'd probably try getting the heel turns in with a normal Reverse Turn and Feather Finish (lady in line, not outside) and use maybe a Natural Weave, which also has a heel turn, in place of the Curved Feather to Back Feather. In one of the last group classes I took, this is what was given as a bronze routine. BTW, it wasn't supposed to be a bronze level class, but the students were of such varied levels that the teacher had to start from the bottom.

Feather Step / Reverse Turn w/ Feather Finish / Three Step / Natural Weave / 1-4 Reverse Turn w/ Feather Finish (as the long side combination)

Basic Weave / Three Step / 1-3 Natural Turn / Closed Impetus at corner, underturned (as the short side combination)

Looking at it now though, I don't quite see how you'd get from the short side's Closed Impetus back into the long side routine. Maybe you're supposed to do a Feather Finish in place of the Feather Step. I guess that would work.

Even though I have taken lessons for a year, in bronze level, I am not familiar with a lot of dance steps/moves terminology. Is there a way to explain the feather step further? Sounds like something I may have learned, but I know it as a ronde.

Thanks

Hi, Dronak,

Thank you for the prompt response.

The Reverse Turn is actually Open Reverse Turn, Lady outside w/feather finish. Lady is expected to do heel turn. Another problem for the beginners.

The Back Feather, if executed in crowded dancing hall, would mean disaster!

Yes, you are right. The Change of direction is meant to change half turn, facing DW from the start, ending DC new LOD.



What is the actual difference of Feather Finish and Feather Step?

Happy Dancing!

____________
Skipper.

p.s. To Anonymous: I think you can get the basic steps details from the Learning Centre. If not, I'll post again with more details. It is all in the Technique Book ^_^

p.p.s. I can only get the message posted as 'Anonymous' myself, though I have signed in!

"The Reverse Turn is actually Open Reverse Turn, Lady outside w/feather finish. Lady is expected to do heel turn."

The whole idea of a heel turn is to keep the lady in line. Letting the lady move outside is one of the most common errors in basic foxtrot and needs to be corrected quickly and not encouraged by teaching it in a routine.

"The Back Feather, if executed in crowded dancing hall, would mean disaster!"

I don't see why. The man may be going backwards but the couple are moving with the flow of the dance. The curved feather is more likely to cause a problem for any couple following close behind.

"What is the actual difference of Feather Finish and Feather Step?"

The direction of the first step is different. Forwards for the feather and backwards for a feather finish (mans steps).

Dronak: one alternative would be to make the impetus turn open instead of closed and take the feather from PP.

Thank you, SocialDancer.

I think I mix up the open reverse, lady outside of tango. Sorry. In the line of foxtrot taught, it should be reverse turn, incorporating feather finish.

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Skipper

That's good. Because while there's nothing wrong with taking an Open Reverse with lady outside sans heel turn in Foxtrot (It's usually step # 1 or 2 in Silver American Style FT), I think it would be a little awkward to lead a heel turn as though you were going to stay in line, but then send her outside. At the very least, it's probably going to be perceived as a mistake.

Now if you want to try something really different: A la William Pino, instead of dancing a Feather Finish, on 4-5, do a heel turn as man and take step 6 in line with the lady. Pino did it a few times on one of the superstars videos. Very cool.

Regards,
Jonathan

Going down the page:

A Feather Step is not a Ronde. It's basically three steps forward for the man, backward for the lady, rotating a bit to the right over the first two steps (I think it's both) so that the third step can go OP. Descriptions of basic figures may be on this site or other ones. Note that we're talking about international style figures here. American style has different figures.

As SocialDancer noted, the point of a heel turn is to keep the lady in line. You could do a tango style Open Reverse Turn, Lady Outside, but for foxtrot it's probably best to stick to the syllabus Reverse Turn with Feather Finish.

A Back Feather wouldn't necessarily be disastrous. I do them fairly regularly as a sort of extended Reverse Wave and I'm not a really high level standard dancer. The problem is that the lady has to watch the traffic ahead and signal the man if he's going to run into someone. This is normally the man's job and some ladies are better than others about doing their part of it when required. Beginners probably won't do it at all; they'll be too busy worrying about getting their own dancing right. Eventually they'll learn this skill, but in the beginning it probably is better to avoid it. Oh, SocialDancer is probably right that the Curved Feather would be more likely to cause floorcraft problems. In my experience, it's also a bit tricky to stay well connected during it and you don't really want to give beginners something that difficult to start with. I do like the Curved Feather to Back Feather combo, but can't do it well and think it's definitely too hard for beginners.

Feather Step and Feather Finish -- SocialDancer's basically right, the first starts forward, the second backwards. A Feather Step is all forward, the Feather Finish is more back, side, forward. If you look in the ISTD technique book for foxtrot, you'll see a bunch of different types of feathers listed. Looking at a syllabus, I see: Feather Step, Feather Finish, Feather Ending, Hover Feather, Curved Feather, Back Feather, and I think the list in the book actually has some more, but they could be PP variations of these or something. I don't have the book with me right now to check though.

SocialDancer, yes, an Open Impetus to Feather Step from PP (I guess that would actually be a Feather Ending) would be a nice switch from the short side to long side combinations I listed. You're getting into silver then though and our teacher was giving us a bronze routine. I still sometimes have trouble getting a good Open Impetus, too, I must not be using/turning my body correctly in order to get the woman to open out away from me. I've got to work on that. And leading heel turns, man, those are hard, particularly on Naturals for me and distinguishing a Natural Turn from a Natural Weave.

Feather Finish = Commenced back (as in the ending to a Reverse Turn).

Feather Ending = Commenced in PP (as in the ending to an Open Impetus).

A Feather Step is any Feather action where the man begins forward in a position other than PP. Occasionally there's a stipulation (eg Feather Step with man commencing O.P.), but it's still a Feather Step.

An easier way to remember the difference between a Feather Step and a Feather Finish/Ending is to ask yourself if the figure acts as a self-contained unit, or if it acts more like the ending to something. For example, steps 4-6 of a Reverse Turn are definitely the ending to that figure. They feel like a "cadence" or (to a Tango dancer) "Natural Resolution". A basic Feather Step, on the other hand, feels almost more like a beginning to something. Or at the very least, its own self-contained unit.

As to how to remember the difference between Feather Ending and Feather Finish... well... you got me there. Make up your own mnemonic device. If I had written the syllabus, I would have made the two words interchangeable. To make the distinction between the two movements, I would have called the one from PP "Feather Ending/Finish from PP". But then, nobody asked me. In my opinion, the ISTD occasionally goes overboard with silly semantic distinctions. There is no sensible reason why the word "ending" should relate specifically to promenade, while "finish" relates specifically to closed position. The good news is, nobody but the most anal examiner knows or even cares about the distinction.

Regards,
Jonathan

I was told by one of my coaches that the difference between a feather finish and a feather ending had to do with the timing. A feather finish has the timing sqq (as in the end of the reverse turn) whereas the feather ending has the timing qqq (as in the end of a weave).