60 posts for this rambling incoherent post. Let's add more confusion and go for a record--100 posts. Maybe some of you guys should exchange e-mail addresses and continue off site.

Anonymous 2. I agree with what you have written. This one has gone far enough. The jury is out. The evidence is in, pictorial and written. Nothing has been produced to contadict it. There will be no plea bargaining. It has been a healthy discusion though, and does make a person check for themseves, or ask their teacher. Before I go I will say one more thing. In Latin the weight in the Rumba and the Cha does go to the point of imbalance on a walk. In Modern Standard International Style never. Signing off.

Anonymous: "The world is a sphere with a molten iron core with a host of fragmented tectonic plates."

Anonymous: "HECK No it's not. It's a round piece of big rock!"

Anonymous: "No it's not. It's a circular thingy!!!"

SLOWSTEP: "No it's square, you round-heads. Don't you know anything?"

DUMBSTEP: "Well, DUH. Why do you think they measure land in square metres? You should hang in the gallows. Off with your head."

Anonymous: "Who're you talking to?"

DIMSTEP : "Anonymous!"

What again?

AnoNyMous. Everybody know the world is flat.

Yeah, I believe that too, but I saw this video and it says the world is flat AND square. NOT a circle as most people have been led to believe!

Anonymous. Shape. As we all know to turn the head to the left is not shaping to the left. The lady can shape by varying degrees to her left from the frame presented by the man. The man's right arm is set in plaster, it stays where it is. If I as man shape to my left because I am trying to cantilever agains my partner will have a tendany to lift my right side.. One more thing the ladies shape is up and over, not down and out. What do you think.

Anonymous. I should have added that if the right shoulder by the man is lifted. There are possibilties that the right elbow will drop. As we know we stay square to the floor elbow to elbow when in normal dance position. What say you.

"Before I go I will say one more thing. In Latin the weight in the Rumba and the Cha does go to the point of imbalance on a walk. In Modern Standard International Style never. Signing off."

Such a shame, I was really hoping to hear how it is that you manage to send the body forward of the standing toe without going off balance...

or is it that you take very small steps?

or is it that you skate your weight on the moving foot?

or is it that you hold you body back until after your moving foot is placed?

really curious to know!

Hint: Go to the learning center and click on forward walk. Look at the picture entitled "2: Extension". Where is the body compared to the standing foot? Can this position possibly be balanced? Absolutely not - unless you skate your weight on the moving foot.

But such a movement can still be a part of graceful and elegant dancing even without being balanced, just as it is part of ordinary walking down the street - an action performed in shoes that probably would not permit skating your weight across the sidewalk on the moving foot.

Do you still wish us to believe that such an unbalanced position is an error?

"Anonymous. Shape. As we all know to turn the head to the left is not shaping to the left. The lady can shape by varying degrees to her left from the frame presented by the man. The man's right arm is set in plaster, it stays where it is. If I as man shape to my left because I am trying to cantilever agains my partner will have a tendany to lift my right side.. One more thing the ladies shape is up and over, not down and out. What do you think."

Don, apparenlty I have to repeate myself. Shape and stretch are not the same thing as sway, broken or otherwise. No cantilever is involved. No loss of balance is involved.

What you are criticizing in terms of topline incline is a broken sway (or even simply a broken frame), which would in most cases be a mistake. But it is not even remotely the same thing as what I was explaining the necessity of.

If you can't tell the difference between left stretch and broken sway, then you are not yet at the level of dancing to be able to include this element without firsthand help from a teacher.

Which of the Anonymouses. who beleives the man shapes to his left. I have in front of me from a technique book a rear view of Richard and Janet Gleave. You do know who they are I would hope.
The shoulders are square there is no mention of the man shaping to the left at all.
If the man shifts his weight to his left or right foot the whole body moves onto that foot. Ever tried dancing in the middle of the two feet. I saw a demonstration of this only a few weeks ago. The instruction was on how not to balance.
I would very much appreciate if you can tell me exactly where or who instructed you regarding the man shaping to the left. Please stick to the question and don't give me any scientific jargon. Tell me who and from where this idea came from. It's as simple as that.