Anonymous. Exactly what is body flight.
Please explain in simple language.

"Anonymous. Exactly what is body flight.
Please explain in simple language."

Carrying enough energy of movement in the body that you will, with no further action, drift completely through the step you are currently taking and on into at least one additional step in the same direction.

To avoid taking that additional step, you would need to rise and absorb the energy to a momentary stop (waltz), rise somewhat and redirect in a somewhat new direction (foxtrot), or push against the floor in a braking/checking action.

Unique among the standard dances, tango does not have body flight.

Anonymous. Now wait a minute, Didn't you say there was no stop in the Waltz. Now your saying there is. Wouldn't it have been better to mention sway as a way of channelling the energy into a different direction, which is in this case up and over.

"Anonymous. Now wait a minute, Didn't you say there was no stop in the Waltz. Now your saying there is."

No, I have generally said there is no stopping when lowered, apart from lines and checks. When you do waltz rise, the body will largely or even completely stop at the peak of the rise.

"Wouldn't it have been better to mention sway as a way of channelling the energy into a different direction, which is in this case up and over."

Sway does not channel energy "up", which is the direction it goes in walt. However, sway (or simply not getting quite all the way over your foot) can help you create movement in a new direction - either as you start moving again in the waltz, or as you have slowed somehwat but not stopped on the more moderate rise of a foxtrot action.

But remember, you can do this with a sway shape, or you can do it with your head weight, or you can do it by being a cm or two offset from passing directly over your standing foot - or some combination of all of these. Really all of these boil down to being off balance by that few cm.

And of course a sway shape can also be held in balance over the standing foot - though doing so will not create movement.

It is after all imbalance which is the source of movement...

Anonymous . What exactly is imbalance to you. How does it operate. I don't seem to be able to find it in any dance book that I have.

"Anonymous . What exactly is imbalance to you."

As I have posted several times, any sitution in which the center of mass is not located over or between points of support.

That definition is physical reality - if you are unbalanced with respect to that definition, your body will be accelerating due to the influence of gravity. With careful aim of precisely when and how you enter this imbalance, the resulting "fall" can take you in a wide variety of useful directions - but this cannot contradict the simply physical fact that you are off balance and falling.

Many dance teachers tend to use imprecise "feeling" words which do not reflect physical reality. So for example, if someone says "not anywhere in that sequency did you put me off balance" this is in fact false. What was meant was "not at any point did you put me in a position where gravity forced me to move in a direction or rate in which I didn't agree I should be going"

Gravity is an ally, not an enemy.

Anonymous. As you spoke. Could you do any of this slowely as we should be able to. It would seem to me that you wouldn't be able to walk down the floor as per Foxtrot unless you had full steam ahead.

"Anonymous. As you spoke. Could you do any of this slowely as we should be able to. It would seem to me that you wouldn't be able to walk down the floor as per Foxtrot unless you had full steam ahead."

Some actions can be slowed down, others cannot without changes. Any action which requires going off balance would have to change it's timing, as the longer you spend off balance the more your body would move.

For example, I challenge you to submit a picture of yourself standing in the position of figure two of the forward walk, with your back foot on the top stair of a flight of stairs. This would have your front foot at exactly the same altitute as in the picture, but hanging in empty space - insuring that you don't cheat and try to balance your body by using the moving foot as a second standing foot. Not going to pay your hospital bill though..

The fundamental idea which you seem unable to grasp is that just as in ordinary walking, you cannot avoid going off balance. What you can do is carefully time when you go off balance and what direction you go off balance, so that the resulting fall will take you exactly where you are supposed to go at exactly the speed at which you are supposed to get there. You can't avoid that... but you can learn to do it right.

Anonymous. I think it is a poor man's attempt to move. Where are we compressing to drive, Stay on the supporting leg longer is being spoken about and being used more than ever before.Dance from foot to foot. Wood's teaches that there is a neutral position where the couple are balanced. There is one after the Feather before the Reverse and any simular place. What gets forgotten is there is a movement of the verticle body moving from the back to the front of the foot with the foot still in the same position before leaving which should be used.But to sum it all up. Nobody can learn to dance or improve what they have got through correspondence. It has to be through a teacher.

"Anonymous. I think it is a poor man's attempt to move. Where are we compressing to drive"

You should not really compress, but you must lower to drive. The energy for movement ultimately comes from that lowering.

"Stay on the supporting leg longer is being spoken about and being used more than ever before."

Yes, you should stay ON the supporting leg, but you must not make the mistake of trying to stay OVER it in balance.

"Dance from foot to foot. Wood's teaches that there is a neutral position where the couple are balanced. There is one after the Feather before the Reverse and any simular place."

Perphaps - but have you now just finally confirmed that they are NOT BALANCED the rest of the time? You can be balance when you are directly over your standing foot, or when you are between two standing feet - that generally means two possible points in the cycle of a walk. All the rest of the time you are off balance.

"What gets forgotten is there is a movement of the verticle body moving from the back to the front of the foot with the foot still in the same position before leaving which should be used."

Exactly. But the body not only moves the lenght of the foot, it must project beyond the lenght of the foot. Once the center of mass passes the toe or the heel, the body is no longer in balance. It still receives substantial support from the foot, but it is unbalanced and technically must be considered to be falling. In effect, the standing leg (or at least shin) starts to fall over as an unsupported ladder might, but rather than tipping the upper body remains vertically aligned over the knee (shin tipping) or hip (whole leg tipping).

"But to sum it all up. Nobody can learn to dance or improve what they have got through correspondence. It has to be through a teacher."

Yes... though taking a very careful look at videos would elminate a lot of the misundersandings some people are getting from reading.