Some are having a hard time accepting that ordinary movements in the standard dances include a period when the body is off balance - when the center of body weight it outside the foot print of the single weight bearing foot.

But it's easy to demonstrate why this is required.

Let's plan to take a step with our fullest comfortable stride. And just for simplicitly, let's pretend split weight is a good idea, and aim our movement so there will be a stable period at mid stride with the body halfway betwen the feet and the weight equally divided.

Now rewind the video tape a frame or two, to just before the moving foot has received any body weight. Where is the body? If we took what the modern competitor would consider a healthy sized step, then we will find that our body is entirely in front of the back foot. Yet none of our weight is yet on the moving foot - that will happen soon, but it hasn't quite happened yet.

So what saves us from being overbalanced past the standing foot? What saves us from falling? Nothing saves us. These things are not problems - imbalance and falling are tools to the dancer who knows how to use them as a phase of the dance action.

Sure, there are beginners who avoid this imbalance by sliding part of their weight on their moving foot. But everyone eventually learns that isn't right. And there are others who keep their body weight stationary over their standing foot while they place their moving foot, and then shift. All you have to do is watch a video of either cheat a few times, and you'll see how poorly it serves the cuase of gracefully flowing dance.

Good dancing requires imbalance. Good dancers learn to use imbalance, making it one of the tools that enables full movement with a well algined body. Bad dancers spoil their evenness of movement and alignment trying to avoid imbalance, as if it were some sort of mistake...

Some beginners will skate on their moving foot

Well, a stride four footprints long means we can place three empty footprint cutouts between the positions of the feet. The body is about a footlenght thick, so there's an empty footprint between the body and the back foot, and an empty footpring between the

Acceleration is increasing the velocity
Deceleration is slowing down the velocity or decreasing the velocity.
Moment(M = F x s)is force(F) times distance(s) from the balance point of the mass of the body to the balance point of the moment. Moment or torque = force x moment arm, measured perpendicular to the force.

When walking moments M1 and M2 are in balance. M1 is the moment which tends to fall the moving foot on the floor. M2 is the moment which holds the foot not to fall on the floor. The balance point of the moment is the ball of the supporting foot. When the M1 becomes larger than the M2 lands the moving foot and becomes new balance point of the moment.

M1=M2
F1 x s = F2 x h
m x (g-a1) x s = m x a2 x h

m x (g-a1) = F1 is the mass of the body times (gravity-a1). a1 is vertical dec- or acceleration of the body, rising or lowering. M1 = F1 x s where s is the horizontal distance from the balance point of the body to the balance point of the moment which is the ball of the supporting foot. Horizontal distance s = 0...1 m.

m x a2 = F2 is the mass of the body times the horizontal dec- or acceleration of the body. F2 is the opposing horizontal force produced by inertia and horizontal acceleration of the body. M2 = F2 x h where h is vertical distance from the balance point of the body to the balance point of moment which is the ball of the supporting foot. Height h = 1 m. (about)

Acceleration produces a force opposite to the direction of the movement.
Deceleration produces a force to the direction of the movement.

Rising accelerating increases the weight(F) of the body.
Rising decelerating decreases the weight(F) of the body.

Lowering accelerating decreases the weight(F) of the body.
Lowering decelerating increases the weight(F) of the body.

Every step has acceleration and deceleration.
Every part of the body obeys the same laws of physics.

Yes, in reality the forces acting on a body are always in balance. If the forces acting on the body are out of balance, it accelerates. The acceleration implies a force acting against the body's inertia, exactly sufficient to balance the other forces.

We tend, however, to call situations where our body forces can be balanced only by the inclusion of unchecked acceleration "off balance" or "falling" Yet there is a role for these in dancing.

And as SQQ's math points out, push forward and up from the standing ball of foot will counter the forward and down torque created by having the center of mass forward of the floor pressure - producing an acceleration that is mostly forwards, and not down.