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Re: Physics of a Step
Posted by Don
11/14/2006  4:40:00 PM
Anonymous. You have forgotten to bend the knee which will put your shin to an angle of 45 degrees, with your heel to the floor at the same angle 45 degrees.
For those of you who are new to this and wish to make a working model of what is a natural movement.
Get a shopper docket or any simular piece of paper. With the list of purchases facing your left. Fold at about an inch with a crease to the right. About 2 inches above that a crease to left, 2 inches above that a crease to the right. It doesn't matter what size the peice of paper is. I am using an unopened letter which is probably better than a shopper docket. The top is your body. The bottom are your feet. Hold the body verticle and concertina the whole thing so that the feet are 45 degrees and the shin and the thigh at 45 degrees. Allow the feet to touch down Keeping the body upright. Do you see that the third fold is over the first fold. The front of this model is with the first crease at the bottom to the right.
I am not into Physics but I believe a steel upright which had rusted at those same places as the piece of paper is folded.If it collapsed it would behave the same. Thats why I call it a natural movement.







Re: Physics of a Step
Posted by Anonymous
11/14/2006  9:06:00 PM
"Anonymous. You have forgotten to bend the knee which will put your shin to an angle of 45 degrees"

No, Don. I am bending my knee - remember I said moving the knee and everything above it forward. And I am bending my ankle. But I am bending nothing else - which is at it should be.

Your mistake is to put an extra bend at the waist, so that your knee goes forward while your body stays over your foot. That is simply and plainly WRONG!

Your center must go forward with the knee.

period.
Re: Physics of a Step
Posted by Anonymous
11/14/2006  9:14:00 PM
"You have forgotten to bend the knee which will put your shin to an angle of 45 degrees, with your heel to the floor at the same angle 45 degrees."

Don,

Go look at learning center forward walk 2 extension as I have been telling you to for months, then come back here and tell us if the standing knee is or isn't bent?

And where is the body - balanced over the foot? No, it is forward of the foot, OFF ITS BLOODY BALANCE.

Are you blind, man?
Re: Physics of a Step
Posted by Don
11/15/2006  8:44:00 PM
Anonymous. Stand upright. Knees slightly relaxed, but not bent. Put the weight of the body onto the balls of the feet but not letting the heels leave the floor Do not alter the upright position of the body. You are now in the correct position to commence a Walk.
Looking at picture two. The back heel is still on the floor. The moving foot has changed from the ball of the foot to a heel. At this time I would say the heel should be leaving the floor.
As the supporting heel does leave the floor the moving leg is being pushed untill at the end of the stride we are suspended between two straightish legs. On the heel of the front foot and the toe of the back. The weight continues to move forward intill it reaches that neutral position where the knees are again flexed. I would say by some of your remarks it leads me to believe that your teacher still lives in a bygone age. They would not have had such flexed knees in the beginning or at the end of the step in those days, in fact they would have been straight. Thoes days are gone forever.
For the purpose of this description. "Take the weight over the left foot only and proceed . You know where that came from don't you.
Does that answer your question about being balanced over the foot.
Knees bent at the beginning and at the end", which becomes the beginning of the next step. Of course the knee is bent in picture two. Who would arrive on a bent knee and then straighten it when the next step calls for a flexed knee on which the ball of the foot is moving. You should try that on two straight legs.
Surly you don't still preach that the weight is never equally distributed between the front foot and the back foot at the same time.. And do you still believe that the foot front or back doesn't go to the last part of the toe.
I'm not quite sure what you mean by asking me if the standing is or isn't bent.
I can assure you since day one I have not altered a thing. What I wrote then is what I write now.
Would you call the knees straight on picture three. I would. Not as straight as in the Rumba, but for describing modern they are.
straight.
The answer to one of your questions. Is the knee bent yes.
I will continue by saying. It is soon to be straight. How could it not be especially if the push is right to the end of the toe.
I'd better put you right on one thing. Because the weight is split as in picture three it is balanced. Do you remember those old fashioned scales where the potatoes were on one side and the weights were on the other, and the balance was equall.
Keep learning you might get there one day, but not very soon unless you get rid of that ego thing.
One last thing . We are never off balance never.
Re: Physics of a Step
Posted by Anonymous
11/16/2006  7:22:00 AM
"Anonymous. Stand upright. Knees slightly relaxed, but not bent. Put the weight of the body onto the balls of the feet but not letting the heels leave the floor Do not alter the upright position of the body. You are now in the correct position to commence a Walk."

Perhaps yes, but it's what comes next where you get it wrong.

"One last thing . We are never off balance never."

You obviously haven't take a careful look at picture two, even though I've been pointing you at it for months.

Picture two clearly shows that as the knee bends forward, the entire body has moved forward of the standing toe.

At this point the body is off balance.

Trying to claim that the body in that picture is balanced over the standing foot is nothing less than an admission that you are BLIND.
Re: Physics of a Step
Posted by Don
11/16/2006  5:18:00 PM
Anonymous. Picture two is moving from the standing foot.
Are you saying it isn't
The only way anybody is not balanced is if the front foot has lost contact with the floor and is clear off the floor( we were always told that the heel skims the floor) and as the rear heel leaves the floor it will continued untill the tip of the toe only is in contact with the floor. At this time the body will have moved through the centre to the neutral position where picture four becomes one.
If the body is allowed to reach the front foot too early. The front foot will stop moving. That is why some find it hard to get into position three. That is with two straightish legs and with the heel of the front foot on the floor and the toe of the back foot.With the body moving through to the front foot of which the knee is flexing.
I would say that at first the weight is on the standing foot. At some point the weight will change and be equall on both feet. As above if the weight goes to soon to the front foot it can't move.
What is interesting is that there is a time when the body moves from the back to the ball of the foot and the foot is standing still. I can see clearly now why one of thoes lecturers had us in our stocking feet so that we could feel we were using the whole of the foot from heel to toe. on both feet..
Going to the Backward Walk in the pictures. In the Waltz on picture one, that is where the lady should be on the count of ( and ) that is three ( and ). In the picture you will see the lady feeling the floor behind her. Front foot still flatish ,toe coming off the floor body being moved back. Move the body back to quickly will result in the foot being unable to move and will not allow it to complete its potential You will notice that in picture four the heel of the supporting foot has not lowered. And will not lower untill the moving foot draws level with it. Just as it is written in the book. What about that Mr Anonymous. You've already made a statement on that haven't you. The above technique should be used in both the Waltz and the Foxtrot. This all about one step only. If anyone wants to get picky here. We do have rise and lower. They do differ between the dances. Add to that CBMP CBM NFR and Sway. Just a bit more. If this is Waltz as the feet draw level we will be ready for a side step. If it is Foxtrot we can continue straight ahead or backwards.
Re: Physics of a Step
Posted by Anonymous
11/16/2006  7:53:00 PM
"The only way anybody is not balanced is if the front foot has lost contact with the floor"

No. You have lost your balance if your center of mass is not located direclty over or between points of support.

As the moving foot clearly still has a long ways to go (compare pictures 2 and 3) the rear or standing foot is the only foot supporting weight in picture two.

Because the body is entirely forward of the solitary support point, there can be no argument but to admit that the body is off balance in that picture.

Raising the moving foot off the floor would make it worse of course. And having not moved the moving foot so far forward yet would make it better, but the body will still be off balance here - this cannot be avoided unless the dancer folds at the waist and leaves the hips behind.

Imabalance is a fact of life - get used to it or find a new hobby.
Re: Physics of a Step
Posted by Don
11/16/2006  10:29:00 PM
Anonymous. I did put this on once before. So here it goes again. We were taught years ago that dancing can be an illusion. This guy I wont give his name, but at one time he was about as high as it is possible to go. He demonstrated the Feather Step and then asked how big was the first of the Feather. I was seated the nearest and he looked at me. I said to myself it was a pretty big step. So I took a guess and said 36 inches. There were others who said about 30inches. No he said the answer is about 7inches to 10inches maximun. How can that be. Well as soon as the foot went from a ball to a heel, the front foot in relation to the body stopped moving. In relation to the floor it was moving. So he explained think of the jaws of a vice only one side works. A simular thing happens here. Make no mistake when he transported his body it was really moving. But that front leg was being driven by the rear foot. Bearing that in mind look at the picture again. Do you see how the front foot leg hasn't altered its shape very much. Look at picture two again and see what you think the rear foot is doing. That front leg is being pushed by the back leg and will reach as in picture three.
Re: Physics of a Step
Posted by Anonymous
11/17/2006  6:35:00 AM
Glad to see your finally are starting to understand the idea of superiposition, Don.

however

"Look at picture two again"

Yes, look at it, and admit that there is no possible way that body can be in balance over it's standing foot.

To use superposition (as you described in your post) it is necessary to project the body off balance in this manner.
Re: Physics of a Step
Posted by Don
11/19/2006  2:20:00 AM
Anonymous. How about picture two going backwards. If you put a ruler through the middle you will find she is still over the heel of her RF. Place the man into this picture and what have you got.

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