The cbm starts earlier as we have a righ side lead from the previuos step or, as we take up our position to dance.

I don't think you mean vertical from head to toe, as it would be impossible to maintain balance without something working as a counterbalance. Generally sway begins at the ankle & knee of the supporting leg.

There actually is also upper body sway in more advanced dancing, but I generally shy away from teaching it to students until long after they've mastered the concept of basic sway from the base, without involving the sides of the torso. There's a natural tendency for students to "break their sides" in an attempt to generate sway, so the initial steps involve teaching them how to keep their torso perfectly still while swaying from the base.

On a more advanced level, we do incline the upper body as well, but it is done in such a way as to lengthen both sides of the torso. Neither side of the body compresses, or "breaks" -- instead, one side simply strecthes more than the other. Also, it is almost never done straight to one side or the other. It is usually combined with other ranges of motion, such that the body actually projects diagonally and through the rotation of CBM. This is yet another why it's not a recommended concept for beginners.

But going back to basic lower body sway, you can certainly do so while keeping the spine straight. But as I mentioned, the line does not extend from head to toe. For one thing, your spine only goes as far down as your pelvis, so keeping a straight spine only requires you to maintain the line to that point. However, we typically keep the pelvis aligned as well, meaning that the line actually works down to the knees.

Regards,
Jonathan

Jonathan. The whole thing as I see it is do we use our body to turn leaving the feet behind, or does todays dancer use the feet before the body. In other words do we turn over our feet. The first of a Natural in the Waltz is a good one to look at. Just see in their
anxiety to get around, how the spine will get out of alignment by not turning over the feet. The person who said something about not getting around is maybe forgetting that the turn is not completed intil the end of the third step. This will probably bring on another storm. All I would say is have a look at one of Richard Gleave's Dance Vision Tapes giving instructions on the Modern Waltz.

SWAY. The inclination of the body line through the leg to the top of the head. Coming from the weight of the swinging leg altering the horizontal line of the pelvis , so as the swinging leg reaches its full extention the sway can be seen from the leg to the head ,virtical.

This is the most dramatic sway, when an entire side of the body creates a very gentle curve from head to extended toe. But there are also sways in the body alone - encompassing aligned hips, torso, and head, but without the legs joining in. And even sway which will include the free foot begin in the body alone - the foot arrives last to the party.

Is it possable to have to much flight if the size of steps are normal and come from the back foot? Does the Step Swing, happen between 3,1 or 1,2 How do you know if you are Step Pushing instead of step swing.

You might be more clear about what you mean by step pushing vs step swing. If you mean swinging the free leg so that it gets ahead of the body, that happens only between step 1-2, where the swing creates a whole body sway that points the toe. Between step 3-1 the body and foot are moving together, relatively vertical with respect to the floor.

Too much flight? If you cruise right past three without closing your feet (in a figure where you should), or if you pass over a foot before you can finish it's action, say zipping over step one H only instead of a timely HT, and thus failing to generate any upswing from that foot.

Don,

If you're talking about somebody who has "anxiety to get around [his partner]", you're certainly not talking about somebody who is ready to learn how to use upper body rotation to his advantage. When a student is in those stages of his dancing, I will usually limit his motion to his base.

But for competitors who are working on greater volume of swing, the freedom of the torso above the waist is a positive asset when used correctly. Like any movement, it can be done right or wrong. What you seem to have in mind is a misuse of this technique. But just because something can be misued, doesn't mean it shouldn't be used at all. You just need to use it in the right way.

It's funny you should mention Mr. Gleave. I spent years and years working on both sway and rotation from the base, to the almost total exclusion of my top. It was Richard Gleave himself who first pointed out to me that I needed to incorporate the upper body into my sway and rotational actions in order to complete them. He gave me a few exercises to work the sway and rotation more completely, with specific attention to the upper block of weight (chest). 5 or 6 years later I'm teaching these exercises to my own students, and under the guidance of a few other teachers, have been steadily improving on this concept ever since.

The problem with video tapes, of course, it that they don't address the specific issues of the person watching them. So while he may have been addressing some common problem with certain novice dancers, that may not be your problem. In fact, if you were to take a private lesson with him, you might be surprised to find that he advises you to do something completely different than what he said on the tape... not because he's contradicting himself, but because your interpretation of his video instruction led you to err towards the opposite extreme, and now he needs to guide you into a new direction.

For the $50 I could spend on a tape by a top pro, I'd rather take a lesson with them (Well, ok, $50 probably equates to something more like a 1/2 lesson or even a 1/3 lesson, but you get the idea). You get so much more out of the individual attention. That way you know what you need to fix in your own dancing. If I'd watched that tape by Gleave instead of taking that lesson so many years ago, I too might have still been keeping my upper body totally straight and fixed on the base.

The moral of the story is, take everything you learn from tapes with a grain of salt. The information itself may be correct, but it may not apply to your situation. And be careful how much you quote these tapes when teaching or discussing dance technique, because it's very easy to take the information out of context.

Regards,
Jonathan