I think we are all trying to improve our dancing. Sometimes with our enthusiasm we try to advance too quickly and some parts of our technique suffers. To get to the point .Are you dancing together, that doesn't mean body contact but does mean stepwise .Stand side by side both facing the LOD. All heel leads to a Foxtrot tune. Are both of your toes lowering to the floor at the same time. Is your none supporting leg in the same position
In other words are you a mirror image of each other. Still side by side but with one going backwards, try to match each others footwork. Now try it in a ballroom hold. Are you even aware that as the lady lowers her heel to the floor the man's toe should touch the floor. That is what I call dancing together. Now the arguement starts. As we lower to the floor where should our moving leg be at this moment in time. Get ther technique book out, we don't want any guessing.

This is a slightly different theme, but this is a good place to say it. One of the best pieces of advice i ever had from a top dancer was so simple, yet so beneficial in the long run. It was simply "maintain perfect balance at all times".
At first i didn't appreciate the importance of this, but as times goes on, i find i'm working on this and thinking about it more and more. I just wish i'd concentrated on this in the past when i used to play a lot of racket sports. I just concentrated then on flying around chasing the ball and getting to it quickly. I think i do this a bit in my dancing!!
For any dancers out there REALLY keen to improve, my suggestion is this: do very basic slow waltz natural turn - link step - reverse turn. Concentrate on perfect 'gathering' at end of 3 and perfect balance at all times. It works wonders.

Phil. It all boils down to "Staying on the standing leg longer". Get that and your troubles are over. Very rarely do a couple get behind the music. They usually do get in front.

Don. I would not put it like that. What realy happens as they go into the natural turn is that they arrive to early and then have to wait for the music to catch up, but the music does not stop, but they have and now have to get there body moving again so now they spend the rest of the dance trying to catch up. As you know we try to arrive at the top just in time to lower without the body stopping. Go up to come down, go in to come out. Dave

Dave. Stop does not exist. The body moves continuously. If I can be shown the word stop anywhere in the Modern Waltz or any other dance I will stand corrected. In Latin the feet do stop but the hips no.

Don. Read my message again, I did not say that we stop moving our bodies in the Waltz. I said that begginers arrive at the top to early and have to stop to wait for the music to catch up befor they start moving again.

Dave, Right. Then their technique is lacking and needs to be looked at. I'll quote again John Wood's famous words. "Stay on the supporting leg longer ".