At the end of the stride you will have equall weight on each foot, its called split weight. Up to that position there is contact with the floor. Repeat after me. Ball then heel skimming the floor. Lower the front foot to the floor imediately. It is better to think of rolling the front foot to the floor which will also roll your back heel off the floor. This is called using the whole of both feet.
Dancing is not walking. When you walk either backwards or forwards you lift your feet off the floor. Which means there is very little to compare one to the other.In dancing the swing dances we stay in contact with the floor. How many more times do you need to be told. Go to your room and don't come out. You can come out for this. When they say stay on the standing leg longer that includes keeping that leg behind and don't bring it up to the other too quickly. Please look at Jonathan' s Feather Step video clip beginning of and finishing of the third step.

"At the end of the stride you will have equall weight on each foot, its called split weight."

You may, in fully flighted dancing I don't.

"Up to that position there is contact with the floor. Repeat after me. Ball then heel skimming the floor."

What you fail to realize is that:

- While a foot off the floor cannot be supporting weight

- A foot ON the floor IS NOT NECESSARILY supporting any weight.

My feet are both on the floor, and in fact stationary on it, but at mid stride there is brief period during which NEITHER is really supporting me.

"Dancing is not walking. When you walk either backwards or forwards you lift your feet off the floor. Which means there is very little to compare one to the other. In dancing the swing dances we stay in contact with the floor. How many more times do you need to be told."

Repeate after me: A MOVING FOOT, EVEN IF IT IS ONE THE FLOOR, IS NOT BEARING ANY BODY WEIGHT. As a result, the dynamics of walking don't really alter by keeping the feet on the floor. It's still basically walking - just a bit bigger and smoother and lower for dancing purposes.

"Go to your room and don't come out."

Please take your own advice!

"When they say stay on the standing leg longer that includes keeping that leg behind and don't bring it up to the other too quickly."

I'm fairly sure I leave my departed leg stationary a heck of a lot longer than you do! In fact, like Jonathan's video, there are situaions where my depearted leg will NOT EVEN CLOSE until AFTER THE ARRIVING HEEL HAS LOWERED - which is, contrary to your infantile triviasm, exactly what is required on for example step three of a feather.

Lets be sensible about this . If your extended front leg is not supporting any weight and your rear one also you just fold up and you will be sitting on the floor.
What was it you wrote that made me draw attention to the delayed action at the beginning of step three of the Feather.
Next Subject Balance. You wrote.
And yes when it is beyond, it is NOT BALANCED yet it is not a problem as long as you support by maintaning the drive . So if I understand you there is no support on your front foot therefore the only thing that is keeping you up is the drive from the supporting foot.
I'll say it again. A ballroom dancer in the Standard style does not fall onto any step.
To go to your first few comments in this thread. The bit about the weight going from the heel to the ball, you said toe.
You have lifted the heel of the supporting foot to soon which has sent your weight forward far to early. Shall I quote.
Quote from the latest revised book. Now let the body incline forward from the feet up untill the weight is felt mainly on the balls of the feet BUT NOT LETTING THE HEEL LEAVE THE FLOOR. Distribution of weight. When commencing a Walk from a closed position the weight must always be brought forward over the balls of the foot before a foot is moved.
Not a single word in the whole book that supports your theory that the body flies and that the weight goes to a point of imbalance. With the weight of the body going ahead of the feet, in this case, Foot after we are moving.
It is futile to try to defend the position you have taken. All you will be doing is introducing another mistake to cover the last one.
Just take the simple way out and do as the technique book says. Also sack that coach.

"Lets be sensible about this . If your extended front leg is not supporting any weight and your rear one also you just fold up and you will be sitting on the floor."

Yes, provided that this situation endured for long enough for that to happen. Which of course it does not. It's a very brief transitory instant - you split your weight there, my weight is simply in flight there. It's maybe 1% of the overall time of the dance.

"You wrote.
And yes when it is beyond, it is NOT BALANCED yet it is not a problem as long as you support by maintaning the drive . So if I understand you there is no support on your front foot therefore the only thing that is keeping you up is the drive from the supporting foot."

Absolutely. You can't support your body with the moving foot until it has stopped moving and become the standing foot (or at least a standing foot).

"I'll say it again. A ballroom dancer in the Standard style does not fall onto any step."

Technically, they fall through the steps. Falling is involved - that's simple physical fact. But the horizontal travel outweighs the falling, so you may not notice that it occurs.

"To go to your first few comments in this thread. The bit about the weight going from the heel to the ball, you said toe. You have lifted the heel of the supporting foot to soon which has sent your weight forward far to early."

No, I haven't lifted the heel, I have simply moved the point of pressure to the toe while keeping the foot flat.

"Not a single word in the whole book that supports your theory that the body flies and that the weight goes to a point of imbalance. With the weight of the body going ahead of the feet"

WRONG. Remember the feel the body move before the feet passage.

"It is futile to try to defend the position you have taken."

It needs no defence for the simple reason that it is correct. However, I do have a duty to prevent you from polluting the forum with your idiotic nonse that might confuse others.

Read your book again. The weight moves from the heel to the ball of the foot. Then the foot takes over. Once we are moving you can forget that because the body will naturaly pass over your heel to your ball and once again the foot takes over. To write anything more into it than that is fiction. How long have I been waiting now for my request which was . I will put it another way. Which book or books says anything other than above.

"Read your book again. The weight moves from the heel to the ball of the foot."

You still don't understand the difference between the position of the mass, and the position of the pressure.

The center of mass KEEPS MOVING and thus is soon projecting far beyond the standing foot, out into space.

The pressure obviously cannot move any more forward than the end of the foot (until such time as the other foot is ready to receive your weight) and it practice can only go as far forward as the foot strength permits.

"Once we are moving you can forget that because the body will naturaly pass over your heel to your ball and once again the foot takes over."

What is this "foot takes over" nonsense? There is no other foot that is ready to take over - the moving foot still has at least half it's travel yet to complete before it's in a position to even contemplate taking any body weight. It's your standing foot or nothing - take your pick. Personally, I keep my weight pressure on my standing foot as long as possible, but I let my body move well in advance of it, because I believe in dancing smoothly rather than with jerky stops and starts as would be required to stay over a standing foot.

"Which book or books says anything other than above."

Alex Moore: Ballroom Dancing.

Or just watch the bloody videos for a change... pause it, draw a vertical line down the guy's back at a point before the moving foot has stopped, and you'll see that it falls AHEAD OF HIS STANDING TOE. Pure proof that he is OFF BALANCE WITH HIS WEIGHT AHEAD OF HIS FOOT. Yet despite the physical fact that he is FALLING it looks pretty good, doesn't it?

Once again into the breach. The foot that is in front at the extent of its stride will lower to the floor immediatly. The body which is being driven by the rear foot commomly known as the standing foot both will arrive under the body which is verticle and now over the new standing foot. Maybe to make it clearer. One the foot arrives. two the body and the rear foot arrive. The whole thing can start again with the heel leaving the floor to drive the foot forward. There is nothing difficult about the step. It is how the body and foot arrive which make it dancing.

This is a reply to quickstep/novice e Q.
Your postings imply that, when moving forward, the weight moves to the tip of the standing (let's say, right)foot and then - behold, the moving left foot is planted to take the weight on its heel before the body weight has had a chance to move ahead of the standing right foot.
It just doesn't happen like this. The body centre of mass must move beyond the standing foot, and stay there for some time (not an instant) before the moving foot lands to play its part in dancing. In fact it must be at least half a beat. The moving foot doesn't take any significant weight as it skims across the floor.

Phil. Have you ever thought that that point in front of the foot is never reached. The body weight never reaches it because it is already gone. To reach it wouldn't the feet have to come to an absolute stop and that mythical spot would also stop. Other than that it is like trying to catch up to the beam of your car headlight. Plus in all those years that there has been a technique book why wasn't it mentioned. It would have been very simple to say we let our body get in front of our feet by leaning over them. They more than likely thought with the knees flexed how could we. With a straight knee you can incline forward from the foot all the way to the top of your head and fall.
So we do as the new book says and using a wall for support slowely . Get into that position and send our weight forward lowering the foot to the floor imediatly , just as the book says and proceed from there. You will then be aware of how you do this step and can check to see if it conforms.

"Phil. Have you ever thought that that point in front of the foot is never reached."

But it most certainly IS REACHED!

Take a look at any of the vidoes here. The body does not stop stationary over the ball of foot until the moving foot is in position, it keeps moving. You can plainly see that the body is soon over a point on the floor well ahead of the standing foot. Draw a line down the dancer's back, and you'll often see that this line (down the back, not even through the center) hits the floor in advance of the standing toe.

These are SIMPLE AND IRREFUTABLE FACTS.

"To reach it wouldn't the feet have to come to an absolute stop"

Suprisingly, it is rather common for the standing foot, or at least the front part of it, to be at an absolute stop during this phase of the action... (I wonder if that's why the call it the standing foot and not the moving foot???)

"Plus in all those years that there has been a technique book why wasn't it mentioned."

Because it's downright obvious - everybody already walks this way, yourself included. If you are not doing it when dancing, you have somethig seriously wrong with your movement!

"It would have been very simple to say we let our body get in front of our feet by leaning over them."

But we don't - we DO NOT LEAN. Instead, we project the entire body, keeping vertical alignment from the knees up.

"They more than likely thought with the knees flexed how could we."

By putting your knees ahead of your foot and everything else lined up, over your knees. How many times are you going to ignore the explanation?????

"With a straight knee you can incline forward from the foot all the way to the top of your head and fall."

And that, my friend, is why we * Bend * the * Knee * RATHER THAN INCLINE THE BODY.