phil.samways, your last question strikes at the heart of many new dancers' frustration.

My first recommendation would be to listen to different pieces of music and select those for which the rhythm is the easiest to discern. We often speak of "bronze" waltzes or cha-chas, meaning selections with easily recognizable beats.

The second recommendation is obvious: practice, practice, and practice. Preferably, one should practice with a more experienced dancer when possible but the important thing is to spend time on the floor.

jj

Phil Samway. Forget about the beats. The instructions are commence to rise at the end of Step One. Not beat one.
Now we do go to beats. We are at our highest and our lowest on beat three with a count of 3 ( and ). Three we are up, on ( and ) we are down.

Poished: We are at our highest and our lowest on beat three with a count of 3 ( and ). Three we are up, on ( and ) we are down. That's if you wish to dance to the beats. I prefer to dance to the Rhyme,melody or harmony of the band,singer or instrument"sax,etc" . Sometimes you have to choose between the vocalist or the beat . Only beginners dance strictly to the beat.

Maybe when i called myself an aspiring improver, i mis-lead people to think i'm a novice dancer.
jj, i have no problem with music. I can pick the rhythm in anything. I play music.
Polished: i'm confused, you ask me to forget beats, then you go back to them. My point was that the book indeed talks about steps, doesn't give the relationship between steps and beats, and yet we're interpreting music which is tied to beats (the fundamental time signature is in terms of beats)even though of course, as cdroge says, we don't always dance strictly on the beat. So when you start to rise, or lower, relative to the music, isn't specified.
Actually, i wish i'd never started!! (this thread, not dancing)

phil.samways, I never meant to imply that you are a novice dancer. I thought that you were asking a question about dancers in general.

jj

Phil, when dancing to the music I feel I am dancing to the bars rather than beats. I always have trouble dancing the international foxtrot to the beat but dancing it to the bars of music is a breeze. Like you I am not a beginner and have been dancing for 35yrs and have had lessons in the past with some of the best but, I am still improving thanks to this wonderful website and the kind people who take the time to respond to my questions.

Does anybodyn else believe that the ISTD made a mistake when they allowed the word fall to be used. Should it have been rise and lower.What we most certainly don't do is fall. We lower dont we.

Polished/serendipidy/whatever, it would suit you to pick up the book every now and then and read it.

It clearly defines "Rise and Fall" as ". . . elevation and lowering . . . ." The instructions for the figures use the term "lower."

jj

No matter what it say's in the book, if you wan't to Lilt in the waltz you must also fall with gravity at the start of the lowering proces.

The vagaries of the english language.. semantics et al .