Starting a figure on 34 does not mean you are out of phrase. What is important is that your dancing show an awareness of the development of the music. A simple way to do that is to dance each figure on measure aligment, but a more advanced dancer can show more complicated relationships, targetting the end of the entire phrase with a group of figures that will resolve in the same place.

Also realize that when demonstrating for some specific charactersistics, others not the subject of emphasis may be neglected for convenience.

Hi there,
Just to get things sorted in my developing dance knowledge, you say it's OK to start a new figure on beats 3 and 4, such as a feather step in the S/F.

That depends on who you talk to. Some people find it acceptable, while others regard it as unmusical. I'm in the latter camp.

As for you, whether or not you allow yourself to dance starting halfway through the measure should depend on context. If you're out social dancing, you can decide for yourself what feels good and go with it. At a competition, however, I wouldn't recommend it. As I said, there are some people who find it acceptable but some who don't. So if you do it, realize that you're risking losing marks from those judges who do consider it to be off-time.

Regards,
Jonathan

I think it's okay to hemiola a figure (put it across the bar line) if you are aware of the fact that you are doing it, and find a way to weave it into a grouping that makes sense. Carefull use of the odd unit figures can let you put a novel stress on one or two bars, then fit right back in.

But if you just blindly consider any two beats the same as any other... then you demonstrate that your dancing is not yet musical.

Suomynona,

Excellent comments on musicality and muscial interpretation.

Rha

The question about Pendulum swing has gone completely off course. I wrote before that the fist three of a Natural Turn in the Modern Waltz was introduced by Victor Silveser over eighty years ago, and still it is argued on how it should be done. This was according to a UK Dance Journal. And that is just three steps. It seems step two might be the problem. We can step straight to the side, a bit on the flat side and then get a pendulum feel as we bring the right foot in. Or we can get a Pendulum feel to the left side which requires a flexing of the right knee to acomplish this. The right side just follows on with a sway on three. The pendulum swing of my clock takes place on both sides which makes step two a smaller step than I was taught to do years ago. There is still the same amount of movement there, but one is going along, the other up, which makes timing no problem with the second example.

Step two is not actually small, it begins at the place on the floor where the feet pass. What is small is the extensions of the free leg outside of the shadow of the body - ideally this is ZERO. If you want to really move on step two, you need to move your body over the standing foot, and incline your entire body as you move. Hence the analogy to a pendulum, which no matter what the angle to the floor is always in perfect alignment with it's support.