I think that the balance of moments during walking should be considered.

The moment of a force is a measure of its tendency to rotate an object about some point. A force is gravity.

Let us assume that the point about moment is the ball of the standing foot and there are no upward or downward movements while walking. If you move your moving foot slowly or at constant velocity you can not move the foot far from the standing foot until you lose the balance on a foot because gravity and the forward moment pulls the weight of the body on the moving foot.

While walking steps can be longer. Thus there must be a backward moment equal to forward moment until the moving foot falls on the floor. Pushing force of the standing foot causes body to accelerate forward. The acceleration forward creates a backward force and moment.

At balance moments mgx=may. Where m=mass of the body, mg=gravity, a=horizontal acceleration of the body, x=horizontal distance and y=vertical distance of forces from the ball of the standing foot.

I hope that somebody with better knowledge in English and terms of physics could describe the balance of moments more clearly.

"Let us assume that the point about moment is the ball of the standing foot and there are no upward or downward movements while walking. If you move your moving foot slowly or at constant velocity you can not move the foot far from the standing foot until you lose the balance on a foot because gravity and the forward moment pulls the weight of the body on the moving foot.

While walking steps can be longer. Thus there must be a backward moment equal to forward moment until the moving foot falls on the floor. Pushing force of the standing foot causes body to accelerate forward. The acceleration forward creates a backward force and moment.
"

You are almost right. Initiating a step, or even lowering for a forward step while maintaining proper body alignment, will take your body weight forward of your most forward support point, and you will start to stumble forwards.

But there is no backwards force that a dancer in an aligned body position can apply to balance this. Instead, they apply an upward force. The vector sum of the stumbling torque, and the upward force from the standing leg is a forward force - so your body accelerates forward.

Many will mistakenly try to pace out their steps by misaligning their body to create a backwards balancing force - really, by keeping their body over their standing foot too long. The problem with this is that they've misaligned their body (put their knee in their parnter's space), and failed to turn the lowering into forward movement, loosing energy.

In coordinated dancing, the lowering's induced stumble is converted directly and proportionally to forward movement. There is no holding back. To make timing, you have to pace the lowering to when you want the step to arrive - don't try to lower and then time your step, time your lowering.

Hi,
It looks like the end of the thread for this query. I wish to thank all contributors for some very interesting comments and surprisingly it did not develop into another topic.

"And the great Len Scrivener, he wrote /* When dancers talk about balance they usually mean control of the body weight in motion */"

Len has an uncanny ability to get to the heart of the matter, avoiding a lot of the potential confusion in the writing of the others. In this case, he's the only one who mentioned the key issue - body weight in motion. When that is true (when you are actually dancing) a lot of what the others wrote in the way of abstract intorduction does not apply.

no im sorry i dont no ethir im kinda puzzled to!! im trying to find a latin ballroom danceing class in st pete for my kids can you help?

Puzzled. Try balance on every 3rd step then lower, do this all through the Foxtrot Basics. That does not mean stop, the movement keeps going and is referred to by the experts as seamless.

Puzzled. Take a tip from one who has been through it all before. Find out for yourself does your heel arrive before the body weight, slightly. Is it on two straightish knees at the extent of the stride. Or do we arrive on a bent knee. Like unfortunately ladies often do.Now from the book.
In the actual Walk, this is Waltz as well as Foxtrot. Take the weight first on the stationary foot.At the full extent of the stride it is divided for a moment between the heel of the front foot and the ball of the rear foot. It is taken immediately on to the front foot as this foot becomes flat.
( that is the weight). I'll go to the next paragraph. The knees should be easily and naturally relaxed throughout the walk. The knees are only straight at the extent of the stride but not rigid". For me this means that my first step into a Reverse Turn will be performed also as the above. Do this correctly and build on it. You now have something to check on your videos. The main differences with today and in the past is the bending of the knee as the weight arrives on it in preperation for the next step. Todays dancers really bend. It's all there if anybody cares to look. Balance points on a Walk. Wouldn't you say it is as the moving foot comes along side the standing foot.

"The main differences with today and in the past is the bending of the knee as the weight arrives on it in preperation for the next step. Todays dancers really bend. It's all there if anybody cares to look. Balance points on a Walk. Wouldn't you say it is as the moving foot comes along side the standing foot."

The amount of bend is simply proportional to the amount of travel. Today's dancers who are travelling more than yesterday should bend their knees a lot. Today's dancer who are not travelling more are just being silly if they bend that much.

There is no balance point as the feet draw together. The balance of forces here would require that the body continue moving. Only if you do waltz rise to closure would you reach something like a balance point.

Puzzled. We are balanced before we step off. The next point of balance is after the second quick of a Feather Step. As the LF arrives beside the RF there is a count of (and) this is a neutral position That is at the end of the third step. There is another after the next three steps and so on. This does not mean stop. But it is a place where the distribution weight can be straightend if we for instance did a not our best first part of our Reverse Turn, we can regroup. See John Woods for the balance points. Clearly seen and suggested before the Reverse and before the Natural which comes after after the Three Step. I know a Professional Competitor who practices this solo every day.Just like a Latin dancer who would do the Rumba Walks every day without fail. There is only one way to find out, and that is to find thoes balance points. And then just blast your way through them with little or no thought that they are even there. See which feels and looks the best .

"Puzzled. We are balanced before we step off."

Not unless you are dancing without body flight, taking each step individually. Many practice this way, but it's no way to dance foxtrot.

"The next point of balance is after the second quick of a Feather Step."

Nope - you are still moving there. Balance is present only in the sense that you can retain control if you keep moving. If you try to stop, you should face a choice between breaking body alignment and falling over. If you avoid that choice, you were dancing without body flight.

"As the LF arrives beside the RF there is a count of (and) this is a neutral position"

You must pass through this position at a speed greater than at any other point in the cycle of a foxtrot basic movement. Also note that your body must be beyond this alleged neutral position before your feet pass.

"I know a Professional Competitor who practices this solo every day."

Many distortions of actual ballroom movement can be worth practicing to improve certain other details. But hopefully this person does not actually dance that way - though if they do, they are hardly the only high placing professional making this mistake.

"Just like a Latin dancer who would do the Rumba Walks every day without fail. There is only one way to find out, and that is to find thoes balance points."

Rumba walks actually have balance points... Foxtrot walks do not, when performed the way they are during the dance.

"And then just blast your way through them with little or no thought that they are even there."

Yes, but the continuos version is different than the one at a time version - the continuous version does not have, cannot have, any balance points. If it did, it would be choppy and discontinous.