This is a reply to suomynona.
I would have to disagree with your comments. We learn how to walk early in life - yes. But we have to ADAPT our walking actions when we try to dance. Many people walk rather lazily, with feet apart and worse. And most people don't walk about with somebody else immediately in front of them, and we don't rise on our toes, or vary our step cadence in a S-Q-Q (or whatever)fashion.
Perhaps you should ask some judges why they're so fussy about beginners closing their feet correctly (in slow waltz, for example) and using toes and heels correctly? and why they're not just looking at the sway? The judges' answers might be interesting.

Phil, the foot actions have to be correct and be practices as I already said. However beginners invariably get distracted putting to much thought into the position of the feet. It is the body action that needs to be worked on, both to hit the timing and to put the feet in the right place.

This is exactly the same as in ordinary walking - the body moves, and the feet are positioned appropriately (without thought) in response. Yes, dancing extends the idea to new areas. But for beginners something that already works (a basic walk) gets broken by the wrong concentration.

Ask an orindary person to take a step forward and their body moves with the leg arriving underneath.

Ask a beginner dancer at their first lesson to take a forward step and the leg moves out carefully in front of the body, which may or may not then follow.

The ordinary person is dancing correctly without knowing it. The dance student is failing, by trying too hard.

Suomynona you said.
In ordinary walking ,the standing leg sends the body,not the moving foot. The moving Foot arrives only as a result of the movement of the body. I agree ,but then the moving foot will then arrive before the body and it is at this point when the heel of the moving foot hits the floor to catch the weight of the body that we count one the body arriving over that foot slightly after. Please read what I say more carefully and don't jump to conclusions of your own. Thanks Dave

Sorry .by one I am not refering to the foxtrot. It could be the first step of the NT. In the foxtrot it would be on beat two (RF)

"it is at this point when the heel of the moving foot hits the floor to catch the weight of the body that we count one"

Dave, what does it mean for you when you count "one" in a waltz or foxtrot?

I would hope you answer would be very different from you answer for a rumba or jive or sousa march.

One in the Waltz I would break into two parts .The first part being a foot position. the second a body position,my body in flight arriving over the foot with the knee
of the free foot along side or just passing the standing foot.
In foxtrot at the end of the feather step the first ONE would be at the point where my right heal lowers drawing my left knee and then foot through the untill at full stride my left heel will be on beat(two) ready to receive my full body weight on 2& .

You asked me where my ONE is.,but in foxtrot as in all dances I dance my body to the rythem and melody and not to the beat,in fact I would find it vey difficult to dance the foxtrot to the beat . The best I can do is count the prep and first step after that I just let my body FLOW.

Guys. If you were teaching a toddler to walk they would become a mental cripple.Up and down the floor either solo or with a partner in an extended hold to a Foxtrot all slows is the way to go. With a beginner the thing to watch for is nodding. With an advanced they should be analizing what is happening. Where are the collection points. Are you recharging your standing leg. And always bear in mind it is the rear leg that is seen the most. So make it look good by standing on it longer.But still in time. Rumba Walks , Cha or Samba all need to be practiced in a simular way to Standard.

John. I know absolutely nothing about the American Foxtrot. Do you have special music for that style of dancing. Won't any Foxtrot do . Reading your writting it would seem not.