Isn't it strange that Harry -Smith Hampshire in writting uses the word Arc in the Throwaway Oversway. So I will in future use the word Arc instead of Arch.

"Isn't it strange that Harry -Smith Hampshire in writting uses the word Arc in the Throwaway Oversway. So I will in future use the word Arc instead of Arch."

Use whatever word you like.

You will still be WRONG if you think that it exists in the BACK.

What is being described is a shape of the OVERALL BODY. Which does indeed appear as an arch. But if you carefully study a truly expert dancer, you will find a STRAIGHT LINE from pelvis to sternum or higher. It's an OVERALL arch, approximated by STRAIGHT LINES - one in the back, on in the upper leg, one in the lower leg, etc.

In plain English. If you draw the shape both male and female in pencil on paper will there be an arc . Or will the line of the bodies go straight up verticly. Which is it.

"In plain English. If you draw the shape both male and female in pencil on paper will there be an arc . Or will the line of the bodies go straight up verticly. Which is it."

As was already posted: the overall body shape appears as an arc, but it is made up of STRAIGHT LINE segments.

There is no arch of the actual back on a skilled dancer, instead the shape is created between body parts.

Get a piece of cane and bend it. Each segment bends equally doesn't it.
Also the whole movement is an up line. If each of our segments arcs equally we have a curve on an up line. In other words stretch it by not breaking our sides. Each part bending equally.

"Get a piece of cane and bend it. Each segment bends equally doesn't it."

Yes. But that is not what a skilled dancer does.

You can't very well bend your thigh bone after all!

Instead, a skilled dancer creates the impression of an arc using a collection of straight components: those that simply can't be bent, like the thigh bone, and those that simply SHOULDN'T be bent, like the spine.

To the unskilled or merely appreciate eye it looks like and arc - but study it in detail (so that you can do it yourself) and you discover it is made of STRAIGHT LINE SEGMENTS.

Lets get this settled once and for all. If you stretch your body upwards and you get to your limits. and keep stretching. You will create an arc with your body. The more you stretch the more you will arc.Don't try to tell me that isn't so.

"Lets get this settled once and for all. If you stretch your body upwards and you get to your limits. and keep stretching. You will create an arc with your body. The more you stretch the more you will arc.Don't try to tell me that isn't so."

It is true only as an overall effect/impression.

If you DO IT RIGHT, your BACK WILL REMAIN ESSENTIALLY STRAIGHT.

Actual arching your back itself is a VERY BAD HABIT.

The back is arched on one step only by the man and that is in the Throwaway Oversway. More in the Waltz than the Quickstep for obvious reasons. Marcus Hilton shows a good one in the Tango. A Lunge to the left and hit it. Then the Throwaway. Back to the Lunge to the Left .Then a type of Link with a head flick. Some I believe have this tape. Its worth persevering with this one. He also shows it in the Quickstep, with a different exit of course.

"The back is arched on one step only by the man and that is in the Throwaway Oversway."

You just never learn, do you?

It LOOKS like an arch, but the back itself is not arch. The small of the back must remain long and stretched and flat. The impression of arch is only approximated by the angles between the straight line of the back, the straight line of the thigh, etc.

Yes, it looks like an arch to the untrained eye. BUT THAT IS NOT HOW IT IS ACTUALLY DONE!