You still misunderstand. The lady's foot is almost perpendicular to the floor with the tip of the toe in contact, but it is not a reaching action, it is a tracking action. The backwards movement is primarily in the travel of the body over the standing foot, secondarily in the extension of the shin below the knee, and only lastly in the division of the legs above the knee.

Anonymous. Just to clear thing up.When you say the ladies tracking foot you must mean the supporting foot it can't be the rear foot otherwise what is the rear foot tracking. So the lady is supposed to move her weight with her tracking foot to arrive under the body and lower as it passes. My question is. As the lady lowers her heel to the floor, is this the time that I lower my toe to the floor. I had better explain here that I am not talking a Feather Step. These are forward walks all heel leads with the lady held in an extended hold. In other words straight line practise all the way down the hall and then back again.

the free foot has its toe tracking the floor

a forward heel-toe becomes toe much, much faster than a backward toe-heel becomes heel. especially on a first step. on a second step such as a feather, the toe-heel becomes heel more quickly, but the forward partner is toe-only so there is no comparison

note however that in a series of walks, the forward action is heel, not heel-toe. The toe still lowers quickly, but weight does not reach it until after the end of the step.