My instructor has always been quick to let me know when my Fox Trot is getting "bouncy," meaning I tend to bounce up and down a bit in the upper body as opposed to keeping everything solid on top and striding or gliding on the bottom.
I have noticed it in some beginners I teach as well. Does anyone have a good pointer or exercise they use that helps someone understand how it should feel to stride or glide in the SS steps of the Fox Trot and into the QQ on your toes without creating a "bouncing" effect? I am certain that experienced teachers will know what I am referring to here.
It may seem like it's not a real critical issue, but I am starting to think it really makes a huge difference in whether you look "light on your feet" or just kind of plodding along through the steps.

Slow foxtrot is not a beginners dance. They need to develop body control and ankle strength in the other dances first.

I suggest practicing walking slowly around a supermarket pushing a trolley. This helps provide support while they concentrate on the actions involved in walking. They can also reverse and walk backwards as though they had passed an interesting item in the aisle, remembering to reach back with the toe.

When the shopping is done, don't take the trolley to the car. Have a few carrier bags in each hand then work your way between parked cars. Great practice for CBMP and feather steps.

One other major factor I find is the choice of music. Many recent releases tend towards Fred & Ginger movie style with a definite swing in the rhythm which invites bounce. Look for something smoother and more flowing such as Somewhere In Time by Hisao Sudou & New Downbeats Orchestra.

He is not referring to slow foxtrot, or American style silver, but American style bronze foxtrot (I think). The "rise and fall" in this dance is unlike that of any other dance. Actually there are two different kinds, that which happens at the beginning and during the QQ and that which happens between the straight-line steps. Some may not call this action that happens between straight-line steps rise and fall. It is something unique to bronze American foxtrot, and it does produce a low rise and fall action. For a beginner it is very difficult. I remember when first learning this (or trying to), I jokingly told my instructor that I thought a student should be at the gold level before ever attempting bronze foxtrot rise and fall. It is really almost that difficult. That is the reason you see beginners bouncing around the room. I eventually learned it, but I was not at the bronze level when I did.

On the straight-line steps, most of that bouncing you see is due to a student trying to get the rise and fall from the knees instead of from the ankles. This makes the rise late, and ends up producing a bump. They don't yet have the skill to roll thru the heel-toe action and to push-off with the ankle of the foot behind, creating an early rise (a very small rise). Jim Maronto's videos have a clear demonstration of this rise and fall between the straight-line steps.

If you look at the video clips of American style bronze foxtrot on this website, you will see a different version of rise and fall which is much easier and has a lot of similarity to that of other dances. Most instructors don't teach this version. Actually, when I now think about it, many instructors don't teach ANY rise and fall for bronze foxtrot. I'm not exactly sure of the reason for that. This is usually the very first dance a beginner learns, and maybe they are trying to not discourage the beginner by having him think dancing is too difficult.

Yes, SmoothGeezer, I am referring to American style bronze level. Your explanation is exactly how I try to explain it to people I am teaching. But when I am at my own lessons, learning more advanced steps, I am still corrected on some of those basics -- the most often being to be aware of my tendency to "bounce."
I think the music is definitely a big part of that, as those with more of a swing rhythm like Sinatra and Darin stuff, I would have a little more bounce in my step, even though it's not a good habit to get into.
The other thing I see and try to emphasize when showing beginners is that the transition from the QQ back to the first S step has to be done quickly, in my opinion, almost in one fluid motion. Too many dancers doing Fox Trot kind of hesitate after their QQ steps, and it makes it look choppy. Even worse, it makes it seem like the QQ and SS are all about the same in length and time sequence, which is about how Frankenstein might do the Fox Trot.
You are correct. Even though I love this dance and feel I am pretty decent at it, this is a dance that can make beginners start to think this stuff is just too hard if you give them too much to think about too soon in the game.
The grocery store exercises from SocialDancer were pretty interesting. I have also told students that department stores and other places like that are not a bad spot to fiddle around with steps and sequences of steps. My wife thinks I am nuts, but just about everything I do falls into that category with her!

The music does tend to change the way you dance this, especially after you gain a little experience and start trying to fit the dance more to the music, however the bumpy version doesn't look good with any type music. I once had an advanced silver and gold level foxtrot class, where the class was started with a warm-up session. It was just the straight line steps of bronze foxtrot a few times around the room. It was very interesting to see how few people could do it.

The more advanced techniques of American bronze foxtrot are seldom taught since it is a beginner level dance. By the time the student is able to handle those things, they move on to silver foxtrot which is much more fun, and the bronze stuff is quickly forgotten. I once had a teacher that wanted to teach an advanced level bronze foxtrot class but couldn't figure out how to convince people there was such a thing.

I actually think we are doing a disservice to this dance by calling it foxtrot. It is completely different from silver or slow foxtrot, enough so that I think it should be called something else (my wife does). Maybe then it would stand on its own and not be forgotten once someone learns the silver version.

I have found another way to use this dance. We sometimes go to dances where a country band is playing and dances are mostly country, although we manage to do both country and ballroom dances to these songs. There are many songs played that don't fit any of the country dances (the band doesn't know what they are playing). They don't really work for silver foxtrot, and they would be a poor two step, but they work for bronze foxtrot. The country folks haven't picked up on this yet.

Yes it is easy for a beginner to pause after the QQ since it is a feet-together step. Most of them need a little help in smoothing this out.

OK, I'll admit to doing the shopping cart thing. I tried to do it when no one was looking, but I got caught a few times. Looks really weird doing 360 degree spiral turns down the isle behind a shopping cart.

I wondered how long it would take for someone to realise SSQQ was Amer. style.

The reason the rise is "limited ", and i say limited because it is danced to the ball rather than the toe, is that it was devised for Niteclub usage and meant to "fit " in and express more of a rhythm type slow trot( it use to be called Soc. f/t ) .

For the poster-- try blending your quicks together a little more ,and dont get too concerned about the finer details, particularly in a beginners class or Priv.-- its supposed to be fun, so add techn. in small doses.

Remember , they are not there to become Comp. dancers !

"The reason the rise is "limited ", and i say limited because it is danced to the ball rather than the toe, is that it was devised for Niteclub usage and meant to "fit " in and express more of a rhythm type slow trot( it use to be called Soc. f/t ) ."

Actually, the reason the rise remains limited is that there's no practical benefit to going higher.

Even in the international or continuity foxtrot, rising well onto the toe when over it would imply very large movements in between these rises, which only the most athletic dancers are going to be able to keep in control. If less fit dancers use such rise, their foxtrot will become substantially waltz-like.

The continuity foxtrots make extreme use of the toes, yes, but not to go up high - instead, the challenge of the toes is to project the body weight and get full usage out of each foot before having to move onto the next. Balance in this case is ultimately about the strength of the toes.

I,m well aware of its intent, and as usual, you get into the pedantic mode .

Simplicity and brevity in such answers seems more pragmatic, and serves the immediate purpose.

SocialDancer. In an American Foxtrot isn't there a Technique Book giving instructions how the Basic Steps are to be performed. Like rise at the end of the first step and so on and so forth.
I don't like the idea of using a Supermarket Trolly for backwards steps. I think it would not encourage me to not bend my knee to the front while extending my other leg to the toe, if that is what is required.
Hisao Sudou Orchestra is going back a few years. My favourite on that disk is Sherezade. I've also got Richard Gleave demonstrating a bouncless Foxtrot to Sherazade.I expect you have noticed that on the same disk Somewhere in Time is played as a Waltz as well as a Foxtrot. Actually that album I class as my all time favourite.

I'll leave others more knowledgeable in American style to answer on technique books, but my understanding is that due to the franchised Fred Astaire/Arthur Murray approach such books would be jealously guarded secrets.

Terence2, how different is American bronze from the dance often taught to beginners in the UK under a variety of names, social rhythm, slow rhythm, rhythm foxtrot etc?
Dheun's reference to gliding had me confused as I do not see that in the UK version of this dance.

Yes that particular Hisao Sudou album is going back a while but it is still the CD I reach for if I need some good music in a hurry. I have to force myself not to play it too often in case it gets boring.

They are still producing nice albums though, most recently the Elegant Dance series. Volume 2 includes a waltz version of You Raise Me Up which is more commonly heard as a rumba.