"we need to lower on the & but don't get stuck with the feet together for the person going backwards."
If you lower with the correct action you cannot get stuck with your feet together, no matter what timing you have relative to the music. The feet are only closed on the rise, as you lower the new moving foot is already extended backwards from the knee down. Then as your weight moves through and off the heel of your standing foot, the thighs seperate as well sending the foot further. To get stuck you would have to lower with your feet still closed, a fundamental technical error. This is for going backwards. For going forwards you lower with the feet much closer to being closed, because our knee cannot flex forwards to send the lower leg forward in advance of a knee still safely under our body in the way that it can send it backwards of the knee when preparing to move back.
As a result of this, a lowering action is always biased in the direction in which the next step will move. In a basic possibly stationary beginner waltz you could choose to move forwards or backwards after each foot closure step, but you must make that decision by the time you commence the lowering, as the lowering will be different depending on the subsequent direction.
