After Len Scrivener passed away his notes were turned into a book. If you look up the record book for the early 50's you would see that he and his partner Nellie Duggan were the super stars of their era. He wrote that the technique book was wrong in the Foxtrot Feather Step. We all know rise end of one , up for two up for three, and lower at the end of three. He said that at the end of two you are coming down, not up. To do it any other way is not natural or comfortable because the dance has linear and not vertical lowering, as in the waltz. Makes sense to me.

I think in terms of actual altitude of the head, it may well be true that you start lowering after the end of two on a feather step.

On the other hand, the action of rising must continue into the beginning of three, in particular the feet must really project the body upwards to compensate for the dividing legs. The lady must really push up from her heel - if she neglects to promptly roll her weight there, the couple will really nosedive at this point.

Another thing to remember is that it's important to dance over a soft, rather than overly straight leg on two. While there is foot rise on this step, one does not want to achieve a large total rise, so the leg relaxes as the body passes over the foot in order to maintain a more constant altitutude.

Yes, most couples may technically start to loose altitude after two - but we should be working to minimize this.

Foxtrot . Feather Step. Do a Feather Step. Do you still really believe that you are rising on the second quick, or is it that what you think you are doing. Todays dancer, the second quick is as big as their first quick or their first slow. or the slow into the Reverse. To do it the other way, on the second quick you are going nowhere, it would just become a foot position only. Go to your tapes or DVD's and look. Don't have any preconceived idea of what you think it is, just look and see how it really is.. Also have a look at where the moving leg is as the heel of the supporting foot touches the floor. Which is the Quick that is under dicussion. Hey. You haven't that much time either on that step. It might be interesting to note that as soon as the technique book was published it was criticised for the written application of some of the steps.

It's an issue of body rise, not foot rise. In a feather, foot rise is really pretty minimal. Foot action is substantial, but to propel and then float the body, not to create altitute rise while over the foot the way we would in waltz.

Also, the second "quick" takes at least as much time as the initial slow, perhaps longer, because it is a drifting rather than driving step. The first half of what we think of as the slow is really the end of that quick.

I'd like to reply to this post by anonymous and the one above by Don, both posted on 24th Dec. Maybe a new thread should be started.
I must confess to feeling very nervous by phrases like
"Todays dancer, the second quick is as big as their first quick or their first slow" (in a fox-trot feather), and
"Also, the second "quick" takes at least as much time as the initial slow, perhaps longer, because it is a drifting rather than driving step. The first half of what we think of as the slow is really the end of that quick."

I'm nervous because i don't understand and ,believe me, i'd like to as it may hold a key to improving my dancing.

First, in a foxtrot, which is smooth flowing movements, how can a quick be as big as a slow without accelerating the body considerably because of the clear need to travel the same distance in a shorter time.

And then i'm confused by quicks taking as much time as slows (which point is clearly tied up with the one above). OK - maybe as an expression of a dancer's individual interpretation - but not routinely surely, otherwise the technique book would not have specified things as quicks and slows.
i usually work on the principle that if an animal looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it is indeed a duck.
So a quick that lasts longer than a slow should clearly be called a slow.
I think what you are saying here is that you are dancing a step, labelled in the technique book as a quick, as a slow. I can understand that.
Or are you saying something else?

Phil. Just to clarify what I have written on the second quick in the Feather Step from what I have been told and can observe. The second quick starts its downward movement at the end of the first quick. Even in the charts of my old technique book there is not a great deal of difference in the length of the steps even in those old days . For a person to be up and then down on one quick would require the dancer to dance the second quick almost underneath the body.In the very recent Australian. Open for, those who recorded it, there are four perfect examples of both professional and Amateur performing a Feather Step.The first is a Amateur Spanish couple right at the beginning of their foxtrot in the bottom left of your screen, she is wearing a red dress. If you want any more proof of how the modern dancer dances this step then go to the professional final. It must have been a heck of a job to have wtitten the technique book, but it does seem that the charts don't sometimes fit the step description. For those who might be interested we have just finished on Chanel 7 our Celebrities with the Stars. It was a roaring successwhere, the Stars had to teach in a very short time a routine in both Standard and Latin and perform solo. Series two is on the way bigger than than first. The winners were Bec Cartwright with International Michael Mitzner, Rebeca came in like a professional and the Cha which scored 10 across the board was exceptional.

I just want to add an additional observation.

In a feather step, or just about anything that ends with the feet apart, we actually begin to lower as we arrive over the third step. However, this is the middle to end of step three - step three began back when the moving foot passed the standing leg of step two, and the peak of the rise did indeed occur somewhere around there.

Unlike foot closure steps which begin their lowering purely vertical, foot apart steps lower on a diagonal. The angle of the diagonal is easily determined as that which will smoothly cause the forward moving partner's heel to touch down before the next moving foot passes on its way to the first step of the next figure. If the last step is overshot, the heel will not be able to touch the ground before the body has flighted past the foot (resulting in continued lowering into the following 1), and if it is undershot the weight will fall abruptly rather than smoothly.

Don't forget sway will also comes into this discusion. How much sway and how it is peformed, example the stretching of both sides and not the dropping of one. A good example of how sway is neccessary is. In the Quickstep head straight for the wall full bore after for instance a lockstep, into a Spin Turn, If you don't wish to fly out of the window you would need to sway to absorb that energy. Like an aeroplane, when it turns it sways, or banks ,this is the most natural thing to do and can't be done any other way. Now we are dealing with natural law.

I disagree. Sway is not required due to speed - rise takes care of absorbing and re-releasing that - we call this swing.

Sway comes in as a result of CBM - because of CBM we are no longer simply moving forwards or backwards with the body facing or backing the direction of travel. CBM means that we are rotating the hips as we progress, and this means that what started as a forward swing becomes a side swing.

The position achieved by side swing is called sway.

I can't agree there. I have a tape by a very important gentman who in the Walt calls the steps . Step. Swing. Sway on Three. As you will gather from this the Sway is seperate from the Swing. Between the first and second step some people might misinterpret the angle of the body as sway . But in relation to the body, not the floor, all your blocks of wood four from the head to the pelvis are one on top of the other. Sway will come in last of all on three.
The book says sway to the right on 2 and three.Then no sway on the Spin Turn. But before the Spin Turn is that how it is being done by todays dancer.