Anonymous. I'm always willing to try anything that might improve movement and balance. So I got on my treadmill and tried to get my body weight ahead of my feet. It doesn't work. The step forward becomes less. I have yet to find a better bit of advice which I received many years ago. That is to think of putting your moving leg under a table untill the body touches the edge of the table. This does require a bit of bending of the knee. I'm still with Anne Lewis who said the propulsion come from the knee and thigh of the standing leg, and stay on the standing leg longer. At this momment in time I can't find any reference to the term body flight. I can find that at the beginning of a dance the body weight moves to the balls of the feet. It would have to otherwise I am on my heels. Body flight anybody any book. Quoting another paragraph. Moving backwards. When commencing a Walk from a closed position, the weight must always be taken back over the heels before a foot is moved. Interesting
In the actual Walk the weight is first on the stationary foot. At the extent of the stride it is divided for the momment between the heel of the front foot and the ball of the back foot. A good practice for a beginner is as follows. Take a long step backward with the LF and stand balanced with the weight evenly divided with the heel of the front foot and the ball of the rear foot. Could anything be clearer than that You've been a bit ridiculace with some of your past comments.When you've said that writters of books . Former World Champions. One of them several times a Blackpool winner are wrong.One more thing. In music just like writting there are full stops a comas. Unless one dances like a clockwork toy they must be used. That is what makes us different to each other. Except in a Formation Team where there is no place for individuality.

"One more thing. In music just like writting there are full stops a comas. Unless one dances like a clockwork toy they must be used."

Yes, there can be full stops, but to execute a full stop you must use a different technique than is used in normal dancing, where movement is continuos.

Please stop confusing the two.

Those exercises with weight split are intended to improve balance, but they are EXERCISES - they are NOT DANCING.

I think its time for Jonathan to come in, answer the original question and end this thread.

Anonymous. As we all know the weight passes from foot to foot( felt but not seen ) At the extent of the stride the foot must come to a slight stop, which in any language means stop the movement of the foot that is in front. If we didn't we will never get our body into a neutral position. There is your seam, which is felt but not seen.
Quote Backward Walk. Swing the LF back from the hips . At the full extent of the stride the toe is skimming the floor ( seldom seen by the ill informed ). At the full extent of the stride lower to the ball of the foot. At this point the ball of the back foot and the heel of the front foot are touching the floor. Continue to move backward , draw the RF foot back to the LF foot, at the same time slowely lower the LF heel to the floor, making sure that it does not touch the floor untill the RF foot is level with it. So there we have the seams that Michael mentioned, plus the momentary suspension of weight between the feet. I will point out something written above. Continue to move backwards. This is also forward. Why would the writter of the book write continue to move forward or backward if the body is already there.So there we have it. Who can argue about that. Certainly not me. Now if you are talking moving sideways . That becomes a different story. I suspect this is where body flight was first mentioned and the term is now being misused. I think I said before, that body flight was never mentioned untill only a very few years ago.

"Anonymous. As we all know the weight passes from foot to foot( felt but not seen ) At the extent of the stride the foot must come to a slight stop, which in any language means stop the movement of the foot that is in front. If we didn't we will never get our body into a neutral position. There is your seam, which is felt but not seen."

You misunderstood the comment you tried to develop. As the motion of the legs is obviously discontinuous, it is the motion of the body which must be seamless, in both appearance and fact.

"At this point the ball of the back foot and the heel of the front foot are touching the floor."

Touching the floor. But notice there is no comment about the weight! It cannot be split in actual dancing, only in the static exercise if you want to test how long you can stay balanced there.

"Continue to move backward , draw the RF foot back to the LF foot, at the same time slowely lower the LF heel to the floor, making sure that it does not touch the floor untill the RF foot is level with it."

If this is actually in the book it's a mistake. It is now well known that the heel needs to touch down before the feet close.

"I think I said before, that body flight was never mentioned untill only a very few years ago."

It has ALWAYS existed but it is very clear you still have no idea of the concept.

This thread is going forever and not getting anywhere. We need to break it down to a simple technique called "STRIDE" and understand how the body weight is trasfered from foot to foot. Once this is understood, a simple fwd walk implies to any dance say waltz quickstep covering different step patters.
Jonathan has posted something about stride a long time back. so please go back and undertand what stride is.

"Continue to move backward , draw the RF foot back to the LF foot, at the same time slowely lower the LF heel to the floor, making sure that it does not touch the floor untill the RF foot is level with it."

The real confusion is that this sentence is applicable to flat walks (for which it was written) and more or less to rising walks, but is dangerously inapplicable to lowering walks. In lowering walks, the receiving heel must be on the ground quite early in the process of closing the feet - some would say before the closing even begins.

Anonymous. Without copying the whole of the writting, which you can find for yourself. The Administrator wrote on the 2.25.2004.
Some teachers seem to be under the impression that the body should always be over the moving foot. Others believe the leg should move first.
To get the right blend ,you should keep the following axiom in mind. The leg and the body always move at the same time, but never at the same speed.
The opposite problem is stifling one's stride by not allowing the foot to get far ahead of the body. There is nothing wrong with having the feet well ahead of the body, so long as they don't move to quickly into position. A good general ratio is two to one. That is to say the feet move approximately twice as fast as the body ( although this is an extreme oversimplification. If you think of trying to stay approximately half- way between your feet, and you never allow your foot to move without the body.
I generely find that students who take short strides are suffering from one of a couple of problems. (1) Moving foot not getting out ahead of the body, as discussed above. (2) Lack of foot pressure from the standing foot. or (3) Incorrect poise or body shape.
A good excercise to fix this problem is to test yourself on how long you can keep your moving foot in motion. Start from a standing position and begin to move your body and foot forward. For every 2-3 inches the foot is in motion, count one two three. See if you can get all the way to 10 before the foot takes weight. Do this excercise for forward steps and backward steps and so on.
Take for example step 3 of a Foxtrot Reverse Turn. Lady is moving forward and the man backwards.Typically you will see the man seem to get knocked back onto a very short stride, due to poor foot pressure and poise. Shifting the poise forward allows him to stay on the foot longer and use better foot pressure to allow him to move the leg ahead of the body. And again counting inches as in the excercise above can help you to determine whether you've shifted your poise enough to make a difference.
Finished Quoting. And the body still has a split weight position whilst in motion. Try the excercise above and you tell me. Please read above. Quote. If you think of trying to stay approximately half way between your feet and never allow the foot to move without the body.

"Anonymous. Without copying the whole of the writting, which you can find for yourself. The Administrator wrote"

Quickstep, the administrator is not God.

"There is nothing wrong with having the feet well ahead of the body, so long as they don't move to quickly into position."

Go look at the videos on this site, and you will see that in fact there is a problem with this teaching - the man's thigh ends up lifting the lady's body to a strained position.

Anonymous. Ballroom Dancing is an Art and not a Science. You will never see a book titled the Science of Ballroom Dancing. By this I mean nobody can say who is right and who is wrong unless it clashes withe Basic Technique. You or your teacher I would suggest, with a side on view on video may be suprised at where your body actually is at the extent of your stride. You don't even have to use a video. Let somebody stand to your side and tell you exactly where your body is at the time your front heel and your back toe is at its full stride.
You said that in the Feather Step on the video clip the mans thigh is lifting the lady to a strained position. You've heard of Sir Bill Irvine. Quote In the Foxtrot he stresses on the accentuation of Third beat, this is from his Silhouette, Music and Movement Lecture given in Singapore. Could this be the lift that you think you see which is by design and not accident. The other lecture was by John Wood. I have a shortend copy of both. Written by Dr. S. H. Wong of M Y Dance Club.