Jim

Videos are good reference but the explanations on details are somehow limited. I would suggest that you go and get a technique book, ex ISTD technique book. There you will find techniques in details. I would also suggest that you engage a teacher that can explain to you in much further details about lowering and rising. Ballroom dancing is very complex, I believe that the key to improvement is understanding what you are doing, also the focus in details is what will make your dancing much smoother and hopefully better. In my experience as a competitive dancer, the details of the basics is what gives you the foundation into your next stage of improvements. Patience is a must if you want to be a good dancer, it's not only the body that we should train but our mind as well. I have a saying "if you don't understand what you are doing on the floor, you are merely just moving around and you aren't dancing at all"- Romeo Queri

Jim,

As an exercise you might try using one measure to dance steps 1-3 almost as normal, but then use all 3 counts of a second measure to slowly lower. Or you might find it easier to use one measure to go up, hold there for a measure, and then lower over a third measure. If that's still too hard, you can hold onto something and without traveling rise over three counts in place and then lower over three counts.

When you rise your knee should get straight-ish, but still be just flexed enough that it is slightly forward and not locked. As you lower, the knee stays just slightly forward until the heel touches the floor. Once the foot is flat on the floor your continue lowering your body by bending into the knee (and at a more advanced level, this is when you would start pushing your body away from the foot to create movement from the standing leg).

It's good to practice this all near a mirror so that you can see yourself in profile and be certain that your body is remaining vertical with your hips under your shoulders, rather than hunching your shoulders forward, arching your back, or pulling your hips behind your back.

That usually happens to beginners and if she is that good herself she should understand that. What is happening is that your mind knows it just the body hasn't caught up yet. It takes time to wire your muscles to control the balance needed.Ask your Dance Instructor to give you an exercise you can do at home to build your technique correctly to start with.Build on your self balance to the count who knows your partner may even be pushing you off your balance.

As you are a beginner we won't go into to much detail here. The technique book is correct. Beat 1 is very important as that is when you will begin rising. In certain cases you can extend this, so beat 2 becomes shorter but you are extending beat 1. Beat 2 is probably the least important in the movement as by this point you should be 'risen' so to put it. Beat 3 is very important as you begin lowering and must have completed the movement by the end of beat 3.

It is very important to make sure you are counting the rhythm as 1, 2, 3 and not for example as slow-quick-quick as this can make you arrive at beat 3 tooooooooo early, lower toooooo early and as result make the girl feel like she is being forced into the movement.

An exercise you can try is simply practising the movement to music. You can try walking with a 1,2, 3 and try rising by the end of 1, staying on the toes by the end of 2 and making sure to have completely lowered by the end of 3 in such a manner that you are now ready to start the next movement as expected.

I think the key here is technique in when you rise and fall, and finally in understanding the rhythm. Also check your partner is not lowering too early as well, although this is unlikely as you are leading.

Also try elongating your steps as this looks nice but might help you arrive at beat 3 by beat 3 rather than before it. Be patient and work at this, because as the technique improves, the dance becomes easier and the waltz looks pretty. Bad rise and fall and technique in a waltz is a complete NO NO!!

Good luck Jim!

I have to disagree slightly. You should not rise on 'one'. You should stay low and start to rise on 'two' , be fully up on the start of 'three' and then low on the end of 'three'. The rise and fall will look odd and clunky if there isn't an obvious low step. One exercise you can do to help with rise and fall is foot pushups. With knees slightly bent, rise up on your toes and then slowly lower onto your heels. Take you time lowering and control the speed. They take strength and practice not to wobble.

In (for example) the simple Waltz box, the man's "one" step is a forward walking step--a heel lead. The natural action of the foot is for the heel to strike the floor first, then the foot rolls forward, and it "walks" up to the toe as the other leg moves forward. So, staying down until "two" is unnatural--and it looks awkward. I agree with the poster(s) who say the rise begins at the end of 1.

You remove the natural sway if you rise on the 'one'.

I have just re-read my post and realised my mistake, the rise does indeed start at the end of 1, not on 1! My apologies!

I can't help but smile reading your comments. I am a latin dancer which means that I am not familiar with waltz techniques although I dance it socially just for the fun of it. However, using common sense (modesty aside, I am a professional Engineer and have lots of common sense) I agree with LADYDANCE that you should not rise with on 1. How could you? You are stepping with your heel? Common sense, YES? You don't have to be a professional dancer to realize that? Please try to rise on 1 stepping forward with your heel. It's impossible! Perhaps at the end of one, like quickstep commented, you probably can rise. For me, I tried few times before I wrote this comment but I can't rise on 1 when I step forward with my heel first on the floor.

My two cents worth!

Have to be careful with these pronouncements about what is allegedly not possible, to be sure you don't claim something which actually happens in other situations... to be impossible.

Consider the idea the the rise in an ordinary waltz figure must not be before the end of the first step. Okay, sounds sensible, but when is the end of the step? The end of a foward step is when the other leg draws even with the newly placed foot.

But consider the man's action on step 5 of the spin turn. This is a heel lead, with a rise at the end of step 5. Only his left leg is at no point going to draw even with his right leg. Technically, the condition of the end of this step is not defined but it would have to occur by the time that the left leg gets as close to the right leg as it is ever going to. Since the feet are never going to close there, the rise on this step must occur while the feet are still apart.

Transpose the reality that it is possible to rise from a heel lead while the feet are still apart which we have just demonstrated in the spin turn, back to the first step of the natural turn, and that would be a rise well before the end of the step which in that case is not until the left foot draws even. That doesn't make it advisable to have a full rise that early, but it does make it entirely possible.

But to return to what is advisable, once the dancer's feet are strong enough, a significant percentage of top coaches will insist that the heel begin to rise from the floor ever so slightly before the other leg passes, such that the rise and resulting swing are fully underway by the conclusion of the first step, instead of delayed until what is really the early part of step 2.