In dancing with various others at a social, there is a quite obvious difference in feel and look between those with full skills for the smooth dances, and those without.

The fully skilled dancers carry their body weight through a series of steps in constant motion - projecting it off the standing foot before their new moving foot has accomplished much in the way of motion. The feeling is one of grace and even-ness - their feet stop and go, but their bodies sustain the movement.

In contrast, the less skilled dancers endeavor to keep their weight stationary over their standing foot, until they have a new foot ready to receive it. They may well be comparatively unstable on their feet, and prefer to keep their weight not just on the foot but in the center of it. They begin each step by moving the foot rather than by moving the body. The result is that their dancing feels very uneven and choppy - their feet are in constant motion, but their bodies are not.

Sorry, forgot to mention. There is a third group inbetween. These are intermediates who recognize the need for continuity of body movement, but don't yet know how to achieve it. They don't send their weight, they let it go. Their aim is poor, and they look out of control. They no longer have the choppy precision of the beginnners, but they do not have the graceful alignment and continuity of the advanced dancers.

Beginners see these temporary mistakes and feel that the path to continuity movement is blocked by such fatal errors. But it is not - provided that they get exposure to seeing and studying with dancers who can show them how to aim and sustain body movement with grace. And yes, they may have to experiment with sloppiness for a few months in the process of advancing.

Sorry, forgot to mention just one more thing. I'm so wonderful. Now you all know it.

Hi Anonymous
We already knew it!!
It would be extremely useful to have some drill exercises to promote the correct movements needed for dancing. For example, the 1-2-3 of a slow waltz natural turn, but without any turn .The basic forward movement with correct lowering and gathering at end of 3 without any of the complications of the turning action.
The trouble would be of course, that nobody would ever agree how to do even this!!

Ever tried 'split weight'

"Ever tried 'split weight'"

I do it all the time. I just won't admit to it.

About 4 months after we started taking lessons. One of our teachers decided no more of this forward-side-close progressive schuffle. He was going to make us do long steps, rise and fall, body glide and use natural and reverse turns as our basic steps. It made for a rather challenging and frustrating series of lessons, but within a month we were doing Waltz and Foxtrot with padequete technique.

Looking back, it was the most valueable lesson we ever had. Once we got the technique down and I developed the floor craft skills to support the movement, the Waltz and Foxtrot became dances we really enjoyed.

Dennis Beach.It seems that you sruck a good and sensible teacher. Can you remember if he taught in the Waltz, a Natural will do. Did he teach that there are two drives between steps one and two. According to Richard Gleave some dancers drive on one and do nothing but step to the side on two. The Reverse Turn being the one that suffers the most. Intetresting. The reason we do this wrong is one, we are never told, and two, some of us take the lazy way as being correct. And yet if we stood feet together and did a side step we would naturally push off the standing foot. Put the forward step in front of that and the side push disappears. Does that make sense.

These pushes or drives will be much less distinct when the progress of the body weight is continuous across all steps of the swing cycle from the peak on one rise, through the depth of the lowering, to the peak of the next.

Of course there is some drive to regain the energy lost in the process. But drive as it is danced to add energy to a body that is already moving is not the same as the drive action you would use if you danced one step at a time, pausing in between. And one reason some of the drives may be lead out is that you only have a very brief opportunity to do each one - too early would be disasterous, and if too late you have already missed the chance since the body has sailed past the foot you were going to use to push it.

They implied that, but did not state it that way. There are numerous things you can tell students and get the same result. They stressed getting equal distance on all 3 steps, which implies creating momentum on the 2 also. otherwise 2 would be shorter than 1 and 3 shorter than 2.

Teaching Waltz/Foxtrot is difficult, because guys seem to not want to put out the effort that correct technique requires. We are social dancers and see very few people taking full sized steps in Waltz/Foxtrot and doing rise/fall.

That puzzles me, because the moves only feel and look good, when you have the proper technique.