"Anonymous. You have just rewritten the technique book by giving the slow in the International style Foxtrot as having one beat"

No, I haven't rewritten anything.

You however have read something into it that isn't there, and is not compatible with the way anyone dances or teaches. Nobody lands the weight on beat 1 for a foxtrot slow, because it is not requested in the technique that you do so, and because it would be severly impractical to do so and maintain continous motion.

If you wish to preserve two beats for the slow, that is an interval of time measured between when the feet pass. However it is an interval of time of two beats duration - it _does not_ literally mean beats 1 and 2 of the measure. The preceding second quick will occur far later than 4 of the preceding measure, so the time interval of the slow is offset a bit beyond the start of the current measure. Again, the duration of the slow may be two beats, but this period of time is not aligned with the first and second beats of the measure.

If you want a very mechanical, crude approximation to the weight transfers, trying dancing 234. This is a much, much better approximation than 134, but it's still not really foxtrot.

Anonymous. Tell me how you are going to do a Reverse Turn for man or lady if you don't do the full two beats on step one. And step four of the Reverse in Foxtrot is going to feel a bit odd.Also let us remember that in the Swing dances the forward step and the backward step are identical .

"Tell me how you are going to do a Reverse Turn for man or lady if you don't do the full two beats on step one."

Never said I wasn't.

Your first mistake is assuming that the weight transfer comes at the middle of a step's duration. That's not really true.

Your second mistake is assuming that the two beats worth of time duration are aligned with two particular beats of the music. That's also untrue - they are offset.

what it comes down to is that if you transfer weight or even place your foot on beat one for an alleged slow, you will be criticized for rushing the timing, because in fact you are

Let's take Don's assumptions at face value and see what happens:

Pretty much no matter how you think foxtrot timing works, everyone agrees that the first Q is weighted either right on the downbeat of 3, or is at least that this step is closer to being on a beat than any other.

If we take Don's assertation that the foot is weighted at the midpoint of a steps duration, and we give the downbeat of three the time value of 3.0, then it follows that the first quick occurs between time value 2.5 and 3.5.

Working backwards, we find the slow of two beats duration must take place between time 0.5. The midpoint of this would be 1.5, suggesting the first step falls halfway betwene beats 1 and 2. That's substantially later than the on beat 1 Don proposed.

In reality though, I believe the weight change in a slow may be proportionally later than that in a quick - I'd try to weight the slow no early than time 1.75.

But to return to actual dancing, getting caught up in the timing of the feet is putting the cart entirely before the horse. Foxtrot timing is fundamentally body timing - the feet just do what they have to, when they have to in order to support the body. As a result, the feet generally will not, and should not, fall precisely on the beats, with the exception of the first quick happening to coincide with beat 3.

It had been third time I tried to understand what you said ; I reviewed Marcus's teaching video clip . Marcus demonstrated :
preparotary steps:
on 3, shoulder weight toward foot ) commence to move;
on 4, LF (just a walk forward) prepares to drive body weight out through lower, rotate ( CBM ), press floor + swing RF and right side forward ( right shoulder anchor on R heel ) R heel arrives on 1, body weight jouney through whole right foot , ( forward and gradually rising , heel off on 2) +
left foot passes over right foot on 2 ( S=2 beats ), and continuous swing up to its position (without body weight prior 3 ( left side leading ) ;
left ball receives 50% body weight then 100% on 3, it pulls body weight up and right foot swings to its position in CBMP on 4 , recovery and prepare next figure on &.
Marcus showed smooth and light beautiful feather step with this way.

If count qqqq or landing on 2, we may have no sufficient time to perform beautiful swing up from valey ( s) to plateou ( qq ).

The meaning of dance with full time value , it may be similar as that we sing or play half note in 4/4 song. s+ 2 beat.

Any way, if you would kindly describe what you mean in more detail , I will be very appreciated. I noted some competitors land on second beat of S. I hoped to know how and why.
Thanks.
ylchen.

Anonymous. I'm still a bit puzzled here.This is what we are taught. Preperation Step, not big but with a bending of the knee. With CBM. We start the Feather on the RF for a slow. We have walked away fom our LF leaving it behind. We then swing through with our LF. for the first quick which arrives with the left hip higher than right hip. Then we do the CBMP on the second quick. Whilst this is going on we have a bending of the knee of the supporting foot, excluding the first quick . At the end of the fourth beat just before we lower and come into a nuetral postion we find the balance point. Sometimes we count steps and not beats. So we have 1 2 arrive on 3 balance point and lower and continue on from there. Being in a neutral position whether it be Social Dancing or in a night club is the same. The feet are side by side with the weight on one side or the other. After arriving on the 3rd step and lowering we go into a neutral postion. And off we go. Just incase it is misunderstood the neutral position is not a full stop. And we have the same in the Waltz.