Yichen. As an excercise in timing. Get your book out and look at the timing of a Change of Direction. You will find it is down as S S S. If after the Change of Direction you are going to do a Feather Step you will need another slow to stay in rhythm. If you are going to do a Contre Check you will NOT need another S, neither will you for any step that starts on the beat, with the music, of 1 2 which is one slow. As written before instead of standing still for four slows which is far too long you could use four quicks. So the whole Change of Direction and the Feather Step would be counted as S S Q Q Q Q. which is with the music
1 2. 3 4. 1 2 3 4. This rule stays throughout your dancing. For instance if you are doing a Open Telemark and you find that the music is playing 1 2 3 4. and you are dancing 3 4. 1 2 . then something is not right. No top competitor would dance like that. Understand this and you will know more than a lot of the teachers.

"1 2. 3 4. 1 2 3 4. This rule stays throughout your dancing. For instance if you are doing a Open Telemark and you find that the music is playing 1 2 3 4. and you are dancing 3 4. 1 2 . then something is not right. No top competitor would dance like that."

Don, no top musician would confine herself to such simple phrasing.

It is perfectly fine to dance the occasional piece of a phrase across a bar line of the music, provided that it is done with knowledge, intent and appropriate inflection, and has an appropriate conclusion.

Measure aligned dancing has one feel, cross-bar dancing has another, and a skilled dancer will make judicious use of both.

Dear Don,
On book , change direction occupied 1and 1/2 bar, sss. Can variation present , ss one bar ?
I will add 2 forward step before the following feather . SS /S qq/ s qq .
or outside swivle , SS/S& S ( 1.5+ 0.5 +2 ) , running feather...
I did not understand why open telemark will fall into 3412 unmatched the music 1234 if my first step arrived on 1 ?
Rubato is allowed if the dancer has good reason and ability to dance with the rhythm again after that . Sometime , I prefer to dance chasse from PP out of 12&3 , I prolonged the 2, shorten the 3 , finished it in 1 bar. I said that because of that I believed variation is needed for art development . people is dancing in his/her mood also. I even thought why triplet or Xplet or more other change can't be added into our dance rhythm? such as in Tango, syncopated chasse, q&Q , 1/2,1/2/1 sounds more like triplet. 1/3,1/3/1/3 =1 ; ligature used across the bar. I thought , why I can't dance with the main melody ignoring the rhythm ? It will be more interesting . Of course , it happened when I was dancing on my self.
ylchen

Dear Don,
I thought , 4/4 foxtrot, if open telemark has to dance on beat 3412, it might follow the figure occupied second half bar.like change of direction. In such condition, besides 2 beats step before it . 2 beats figures may follow open telemark, such as promenade pivot , qq, or telemark action,qq , or sime line figure you can extend as you like, or some figures occupied x+ 0.5 Bar, or variation met your moving direction and choreography. As a newbie, maybe what I said made no senese . Teach me.
William Pino , Luca , Fabio , Andrew , and a lot of top Lantin Dancers must have a lot of knowledge about music and dancing . Where did they obtain such perfect information ? Which books are valuable to read ?
ylchen