Don, once again you ignore the obvious reality of the world in which you live.

"Another Guest is exactly right when he wrote that the leg moves first.
How can you possibly think that the body moves first."

Because it is quite obvious that it does.

"There is a movement of the body as in all steps but it is so small. Its sending a message to the legs to get going. They go first."

Nope, the body gets going first. And then the leg catches up, possibly swinging a little bit beyond depending on the nature of the step. But except in tango, the body always moves first.

"Try to understand this. The leg with the foot on the end of it moves ahead of the body.

Nope. The body moves, and as a result of that the free leg swings. In the case of multiple pivots, the body keeps moving throughout, while the legs start and stop. Yes, the body changes speed, but it never stops moving until you check or rise to a stop.

"Do you think with thigh contact there might be a tendency to be leaning slightly back."

You totally misunderstand the idea of thigh contact, Don. This contact, of right thigh to right thigh, is as a result of holding a side lead position, and has nothing to do with poise. I'm not sure I'd recommend it as it's a bit too rigid to be an ultimate goal - but it has absolutely nothing to do with poise or if someone is neutral or leaning one way or another.

Anonymous. Can the lady stand up straight with thigh contact. If she did she would be in a very restricted position.Just incase your teacher has been left behind, look for yourself. Below the waist is now completely free. If you put your hand down the front of the waist you should be able to swing it from side to side without touching anything. In the Quickstepn the poise is even higher.

"Anonymous. Can the lady stand up straight with thigh contact."

Yes. You still don't understand that the contact that was being recommended is between the INSIDES of the right thighs.

I'm not sure I recommend it, but unlike you at least I UNDERSTAND it.

"If she did she would be in a very restricted position."

No, she would be in a quite common and ordinary position for pivots.

The big book -vs- practice difference for natural pivots is that today there is practially no rotation of the foot against the floor.

The foot is placed pre-turned, then is the body passes over and beyond the foot the body aline completes the rotation, with the foot not turning against the floor.

This essentially elimnates the old "held in CBMP" idea. Since the standing foot is not rotating, it is impossible to keep the moving foot on the line of the standing foot (which is the definition of CBMP) - instead the moving leg must swing away from the standing leg, which is more the book action for step 1-2 or 4-5 of a natural than it is anything resembling a book pivot.

And the result is a much clearner, more efficient, and far more dynamic action.

Anonymous.You've lost me at the roundabout. Are you saying that the LF doesn't turn on the floor. One of the main principles in Modern is that the feet always point in the same direction except for some very rare occasions. If you have trouble I would suggest that you turn the toe in very slightly. If this is still the Spin Turn on step four you could do the same. If you can't manage its a safe bet the step is too big.

""4. Do not move you legs and body at the same time. It always has to be legs (feet) and then body follows."

You've got it exactly backwards!!!"

Because of this argument, I looked up World superstars DVD and put the various dancers' mutiple pivot turns on slow motion, just to see if any of them can manage to do mutiple turns by moving body first and then the feet even though we can't. Unfortunately none of them executed it that way. All of them moved their feet first and then their body followed. I don't know how one can do CONTINUOUS PIVOT TURNS by moving the body and then the feet. Try it with your partner. It is simply not possible. Let me add that I am only talking about continous pivot turns, not a single natural turn. Also please post here if there are any dancers on World Super Stars DVD who move their body and then their feet. I am very curious to see it.

If you looked carefully, you would see that their bodies had never stopped moving. Whears their legs start and stop. As a result, the body movement always precedes the leg movement.

Anothe Guest. I also looked up the World Super Stars DVD. I have also looked at many tapes and disks. At this point in time i haven't seen any examples of the body moving ahead of the leg On a Forward Walk or anywhere else.
The only time the body weight goes ahead to the point of imbalance is on a Rumba Walk in Latin.
I can only assume that Anonymous has his Standard dances mixed up with his Latin. Or maybe it was his teacher, who wouldn't be much of a teacher if indeed that is how they teach.

"Anothe Guest. I also looked up the World Super Stars DVD. I have also looked at many tapes and disks. At this point in time i haven't seen any examples of the body moving ahead of the leg On a Forward Walk or anywhere else.
The only time the body weight goes ahead to the point of imbalance is on a Rumba Walk in Latin.
I can only assume that Anonymous has his Standard dances mixed up with his Latin. Or maybe it was his teacher, who wouldn't be much of a teacher if indeed that is how they teach."

IF you want to take a serious look at it, consider that there are two differnet issues.

1) Body moving before the leg. This is almost always the case, even in pivots.

2) Body getting ahead of the free leg. This happens too, but in more select circumstances. The classic case where it is really important is a forward step of the right foot with CBM. It's needed there to keep the leg in your own space and out of your partners. The problem is that the same reason it is needed makes it hard to take a pictue that clearly shows it - the partner's body is in the way. This is also quite useful in some outside partner actions such as the weave - there is it quite beneficial to project the body forwards, and have the legs swing mostly to being under the body, but not get out more than a trivial distance ahead of it. A number of ladies fail to do this, and instead end up leaning over backwards, trailing a mile behind their legs... looks really silly, but hey, if it's the way you want to dance...

I simply cannot understand how a pivot (which involves half a complete turn)can be danced without the standing foot turning on the floor. I think this is anatomically impossible, but i am willing to learn!
also, when it was stated that the body never stops moving, but the legs start and stop - this would mean detachable legs. so i think something slightly different was meant. Maybe the feet start and stop? This is an example of how precise verbal descriptions are so difficult.