"Maybe I should not be involved, but you will be in a big trouble as soon as you try to pause especially during fox trot. Fox trot is like water flow, and water never stops nor pauses. Period!"

Of course you should be involved!

It's this kind of 'obvious if you only take a minute to think about it' observation which you have made, that sadly tends to get lost when students become so caught up in various skill-building exercises they've been given, that they forget the fundamental nature of the actual dance they are trying to achieve.

You haven' t explained a thing. Like to you a pause is stop. You dont seem to think that there can be a pause in travelling without the movement stopping. A prime example is a half a turn at the end of a Featherstep where both the man and the lady are on a spindle both turning around their own centre. They have not stopped but at that moment they are not trying to travell. We all know what an Open Telemark is. How many different interpretations do we see in one Grand Final. Using the same timing some will be in and gone. others will hover and then catch up. Depending what suits them for their next move. To suggest that any dance doesn't have pauses in it would make the dance very robotic. The very fact that on a turn the person on the inside of a turn
doesn't travell as fast or as far as the person on the outside. I think a simple test to prove that this must happen is for four people to make a chain just like you did at school and turn around. The person who is second is going faster than the person who is at the centre and all the way down the line to the person on the outside who is running. Is that too hard to understand. If we travell in a straightish line like a Feather Step. That can be at a constant speed all though some do rotate on the Feather But the moment we turn then something else takes over. If this doesn' t happen then the lady will be dragged off her Heel Turn. Which happend very often doesn't it ladies. Strangly the Reverse Turn is the main problem and not so much the Natural. This has probably been an over simplification but I think the message is still there.If we had a speedometer on us I am sure it would not stay at the same speed throughout our Foxtrot. And if we both wore a speedometer i am sure there would be variations in the speed between the partnership. Yes or No. Yes means there are pauses. No means there is not.

"You haven' t explained a thing. Like to you a pause is stop. You dont seem to think that there can be a pause in travelling without the movement stopping. A prime example is a half a turn at the end of a Featherstep where both the man and the lady are on a spindle both turning around their own centre. They have not stopped but at that moment they are not trying to travell."

I can't speak to their state of mind if they are "trying" to travel or if it just happens, but on any couple who has a clue about the dance called foxtrot, it's obvious that they do in fact KEEP TRAVELLING throughout the entire feather step.

You' ve just brought the whole argument back to the Feather Step. which way back I said that on the first step of the Feather there is no foot rise NFR for the lady. This creates a not seen but felt pause to allow the man to pass. Instead of discussing please go to the Learn the Dances and learn. What could be easier than that. Also tell your teacher how to find it.

"This creates a not seen but felt pause to allow the man to pass."


Ooh, now the pause is it's not realy, it's just a feeling!

I haven't a clue what your are feeling in your mixed up mind, but anyone can see that THERE IS NO PAUSE IN A GOOD FEATHER.

"Instead of discussing please go to the Learn the Dances and learn. What could be easier than that. Also tell your teacher how to find it."

Heheh... you want my Blackpool champ teachers to learn from an internet video? Now that's funny!

(But the video happens to be right on this... there is no pause in that Jonathan's feather!)

Now you have brought the whole discussion back to the Feather Step. Which if you remember I said that no foot rise NFR for the lady on the first step allows the man to step outside the lady, she still in contact moves to the man's right side. If she took the same size step as the man at the same time he would never get past. Take that lot up with John Wood former Blackpool winner .
Looking at the video clip You had better look again. When that right foot is extended right to the tip of the toe what do you see apart from the foot.
It is a bit childish to say my Blackpool Champions. I wonder if you have ever met one Maybe you attended a group class but that didn't mean you understood. My reason for saying this is . Do you remember saying that in a Back Lock in the Quickstep that the shoulder doesn' t go back with the hip. Was that before or after your brief encounter. Do you also remember very recently say that when we dance we stand on only one leg at a time and that one foot is off the floor And yet later you agree that the ball of the foot is in contact with the floor and the heel then skims the floor with the toe slightly raised. And no Blackpool champion, and these are your words, would tell you On a backward lowering step the TH must become flat before the departing leg retracts. Also they would at no time tell you to go to the point of imbalance by sending your body ahead of your feet and falling onto your next step. No Blackpool Champion would sign their name to that one. I doubt if you would be used in their advertising.







floor

"Looking at the video clip You had better look again. When that right foot is extended right to the tip of the toe what do you see apart from the foot."

1) I see a body which has been continously moving backwards.

2) I see a right knee which has actually not compressed forwars RELATIVE TO TEH ROOM, though it may have done so a little relative to the body.

"It is a bit childish to say my Blackpool Champions. I wonder if you have ever met one"

I didn't say my blackpool champions, I said my blackpool champion coaches. As in the several individuals amongst my pool of guiding coaches who hold such a title.

"Maybe you attended a group class but that didn't mean you understood."

On the contrary, these were private lessons in which the coaches answered my questions on these sorts of topics, and in which I danced these actions with them.

"Do you remember saying that in a Back Lock in the Quickstep that the shoulder doesn' t go back with the hip. Was that before or after your brief encounter."

It goes back of course, but not as far as the shoulder. I believe that particaly correction of your misunderstandings occured several years into my habit of study with such coaches, which is of course ongoing now.

"Do you also remember very recently say that when we dance we stand on only one leg at a time and that one foot is off the floor"

WRONG. I did not say that one foot was off the floor, I said that it COULD BE off the floor without causing a problem.
You still haven't discovered the difference between a foot that might be on the floor but is not bearing any weight, and a foot which you are counting on to support you!

"And no Blackpool champion, and these are your words, would tell you On a backward lowering step the TH must become flat before the departing leg retracts."

WRONG AGAIN. THE PERSON WHO TOLD ME THIS WON BLACKPOOL SEVERAL TIMES!

"Also they would at no time tell you to go to the point of imbalance by sending your body ahead of your feet"

That came, quite explicitly, from yet another multi-time blackpool champ I've been priviliged to work with.

If I were you I would write on a piece of paper all of those Basic things and the next time i saw my Blackpool winners, i would also take with me my technique book and pay them to highlight the parts where Alex Moore got it wrong. So then I could write with great confidance how we should not lower the heel to the floor untill the moving foot passes . But we should lower the heel to the floor imediately.
I think the ladies backward step step has been muddled with the mans forward step. The man lowers the foot to the floor imediately on arrival. At the same time the lady does not.They are not a mirror image of each other.

"So then I could write with great confidance how we should not lower the heel to the floor untill the moving foot passes . But we should lower the heel to the floor imediately."

I got a better idea. Why don't you look at Jonathan's feather step right here on this website and tell me where his moving foot is when his right heel touches down (from toe only to flat) on step three?

Answer: not only is his left foot not closed, it has not even begun to move yet! All it's done is roll to the toe in preperation for moving. The actual closing of the left foot occurs only after his right foot is flat, while he lowers into his right knee.

Now, don't believe for a minute that ALL steps lower the heel this soon. But a lot of the lowering ones, especially the outside partner ones, should. And that doesn't contradict the book, because the book only gave you a full description of a walking exercise done inline, with no rise and no fall.

Oh, how's the search for the pause in the feather yet. Found one in that video?

didn't think so

Are you two married to each other? You two clearly have your own viewpoints on the feather step, and neither are going to change the others view......LET IT GO!