If you are concerned as to where the point of balance is whilst dancing slow foxtrot, then you will never dance a good foxtrot. The resulting 'analysis paralysis' will inhibit your progression. So just get out there dance
and enjoy.

Curious. At last a sensible question which goes straight to the heart of the matter. As a dancer our body stays verticle. We must not lean forward or backward. The main argument here is there are those who think the weight can travell forward without using the feet or the knees and thighs as the propellant. To those I would suggest that they glue their feet to the floor. Bind their ankles knees and thighs. Now try to move your body weight forward still keeping the body verticle. Like a legless person. Without tipping the head and shoulders forwards. We can't can we. Which answers your question, is the body weight forward . Having said that we are refering to the Basics. Somewhere in a Foxtrot group there would be a variation where the body momentaraly is in free fall. like a Rumba Walk where we go to the point of imbalance before we catch our weight with the moving foot. For my part I cannot remember being taught anything in the Foxtrot like that. I always remember a teacher telling the class. That on a moving train doing a 100mph. Hold a table tennis ball over a fixed point. Drop it, and it won't miss the spot. But to remember we as dancers are moving over the floor which is not moving beneath us. Interesting isn't it. All that writting above just to say we stand up straight and our legs carry our body and not our body carries our legs. Anonymous wrote just prior to this to compare an old tape with a recent one, and seemed to be in favour of the old. I'll do one better I was there when the Foxtrot was done with very straight legs. I doubt that there will ever be a return to those days. Like everything time moves on and in only one direction. Keep dancing

"The main argument here is there are those who think the weight can travell forward without using the feet or the knees and thighs as the propellant."

Yes, if the body is already, which teh majority of the time tt will be...

"To those I would suggest that they glue their feet to the floor."

Okay.

"Bind their ankles knees and thighs."

Fatal mistake - this has no correspondence to dancing.

"Now try to move your body weight forward still keeping the body verticle."

No problem, provided that only your feet are restrained.

Granted, you can only travel so far before you have to move the free foot, but his travel before the free foot moves is extremely important.
"Somewhere in a Foxtrot group there would be a variation where the body momentaraly is in free fall. like a Rumba Walk where we go to the point of imbalance before we catch our weight with the moving foot. For my part I cannot remember being taught anything in the Foxtrot like that."

It happens on essentially every step, but it's most obvious on the lowering steps.

"All that writting above just to say we stand up straight and our legs carry our body and not our body carries our legs."

Actually both are true at various points in the cycle of the step. Any leg movement not a result of the body carrying it is absolutely prohibited in the swing dances. Body movement not carried by the legs occurs quite a bit, but so does body movement carried by the legs.

"Anonymous wrote just prior to this to compare an old tape with a recent one, and seemed to be in favour of the old."

Nope, in favor of the new that still incorporates the old, over the more common new that forgets the fundamentals of the old.

"I'll do one better I was there when the foxtrot was done with very straight legs. I doubt that there will ever be a return to those days."

That is still the correct way to dance it if you are not moving much. Deepness of leg bend is direclty related to distance covered - if you are not planning to cover much distance, it's a serious error to bend your legs much. On the other hand, if you plan to cover modern competitive distance, then you need to bend your legs more than they used to. Pretty simple...

Anomymous. Once again the body is not ahead of the feet. Unless the body is on an incline towards our partner. Which it is not supposed to be. Some of us will have seen the film " Shall we Dance ". There is a partnership in the film which is shown a couple of times. The upright posture of the man is clearly seen. I wonder why the ladies are not comong into this discusion. They are the ones who will suffer by being pushed back to a lowering of the heel to soon. As we all know with the person going backward the heel does not lower untill the moving foot comes along side and passes. If you as a lady can do this solo, and can't when with partner, something is not right. If the man's weight is ahead of the feet you haven't got a chance of doing it correctly. Lower too soon will result in the front leg becoming straight and the toe popping into the air. That last sentence is by a former Blackpool winner Steve Hanah, not by me. In fact everything that I have written is a repeat of what I have been told or read. So we have those who will argue with John Wood. Anne Lewis. Steven Hanah Alex Moore and our own Jonathan. And the list goes on.

"Anomymous. Once again the body is not ahead of the feet."

It's becomming clear that you have this problem in your dancing...

"Unless the body is on an incline towards our partner."

The vertically aligned body's center passes beyond the standing foot before the moving foot passes the standing foot. It's not really that hard to do - you've probably done it several hundred times today - you just weren't wearing dance shoes at the time.

"Which it is not supposed to be. Some of us will have seen the film " Shall we Dance ". There is a partnership in the film which is shown a couple of times.
The upright posture of the man is clearly seen."

The guy is a latin dancer without a real understanding of how to move in modern. As a result posture is about all he has. Certainly you want to have good posture, but there's a lot of importance to flighting the body (which I seem to recall you dismiss)

"As we all know with the person going backward the heel does not lower untill the moving foot comes along side and passes."

You have the inequality backwards - the heel must lower by the time this happens, not "does not lower until".

"If the man's weight is ahead of the feet you haven't got a chance of doing it correctly."

Yes, if the man's weight is on top of the lady that is bad, but the man's weight can be ahead of his feet without being on top of the lady.

"Lower too soon will result in the front leg becoming straight and the toe popping into the air."

Well that actually should happen, though hopefully gradually.

"In fact everything that I have written is a repeat of what I have been told or read."

Nope, it's a repeate of what you heard or understood - not necessarily what was said or written, and most certainly not what was done.

"So we have those who will argue with John Wood. Anne Lewis. Steven Hanah Alex Moore and our own Jonathan. And the list goes on."

You are channeling them? I don't think so. Happy to discuss any of this with them firsthand though.

Anonymous. It suddenly came to me that we might be talking at cross perposes. If you are arriving on a straight knee which barely bends, your weight will arrive fairly forward. If as todays dancers, bend the knee as the weight arrives over the front foot it is not possible to have the body in front of the knee. When I was first taught the Foxtrot was very straight legged dance, definitely a tall persons dance. This was always an issue that the order of dances in a competition favoured the tall couples. So it was changed from Waltz Foxtrot Tango Quickstep. To Waltz Tango Foxtrot Quickstep. There was no V Waltz. The change in the those dances was because a taller couple had their best two dances first which was an advantage. So after much deliberation it was changed. If you have been taught as I was in those distant days you will arrive over the front foot with only the slightest of bends. Hardly a flex. Which could be likend to a Rumba where the knee is dead straight and the weight goes forward. Today tall or short the step could be compared to the Samba where we arrive on a straight knee which immediately bends . I must add that in the old Foxtrot the rise and lower was through the feet. Not so today. I wonder who among us does an entirely different first step in the Waltz to the Foxtrot. Might be worth looking at. As I have said many times. Go look at your videos and see for ones self. It shouldn't be too hard to pick.

"When I was first taught the Foxtrot was very straight legged dance"

Quickstep, you are still confusing the technique of dancing with the magnitude of dancing. There has been no fundamental change in the proper technique between the straighter leg days and today. All that has changed is that the top dancers are more athletic - they move more, and as a result they have to lower more deeply. This is not a change from the old way, just an extension of it. There is however a common mistake, and that is to lower deeply when not moving a lot. That was wrong, and it still is wrong.

"I must add that in the old Foxtrot the rise and lower was through the feet. Not so today."

It still is. But you may fail to see this, because there is more leg action going on as well. Sometimes today you see bad dancers with only leg action and no foot action - this is wrong. Good dancers use foot action always, and andd leg if and only if they are going to make large movements.

"If you are arriving on a straight knee which barely bends, your weight will arrive fairly forward. If as todays dancers, bend the knee as the weight arrives over the front foot it is not possible to have the body in front of the knee."

You are confusing departure with arrival and the foot with the knee. On departure, the body is directly over the knee, which is advancing ahead of the foot. On arrival the foot is slightly ahead of the knee which is slightly ahead of the body, these distances shrinking to zero during the arrival.

Anonymous. It would appear that your last paragraph agrees with what I have been saying since about page 77. I still say and repeat. If you try to instruct a beginner or even higher that the body flights ahead of the foot.
More harm than good will be accomplished
I can remember this dicussion way back when Jonathan published a frame by frame from a video.And still there were those who said that it was wrong. They also said the figures on a Forward and Backward Walk in the learning section on this sight was wrong.I remember writting at that time that if we stood close, and facing a wall and step our toe will arrive before our nose. Do you know some clown said that was wrong. The only mention of flight that I know of was said by Richard Gleave when he said we fly the V.Waltz. But that's on a sideway step.Even then the foot is just ahead of the side of the body. Must remember that this time the query was by Puzzled who only wanted to know about the first step of a Foxtrot. The points of balance. The comment that on arrival the foot is slightly ahead of the knee which is slightly ahead of the body those differences shrink to zero on arrival. How could it be any other way. Can't go from A to C without passing B.

The main issue is with departure, not arrival. At departure the body absolutely has to be ahead of both feet - there is no choice in the matter unless you want to look silly.

Anonymous.How does the body then get to a split weight position. That's with the weight equally divided between the front and the back leg. That has got to happen. As I said before, and if you would care to explain. How can we get to position C without first passing position B. I can assure you that at some time the weight will be equally divided, being propelled by the standing foot to a position over the front foot which will bend to cushion the arriving body. As I have said several times. Go look at the videos.