Sway is not conditional on height !--- an ex world champ.-- was of similar stature .

Thanks but that does not answer my question.Cheers

cdroge. Why don't you go to google Marcus Hilton youtube. There you have a Basic Foxtrot and a Basic Waltz.
You will not find anything false or exagerated in the Sway used. If you look up the defintition of Sway you will find it is a natural incline of the body towards the centre of a turn. An areoplane when it turns it has to sway, it dips its wing.With dancing there is no sway on Spins. A Double Reverse Spin for instance. If you look at Marcus after a Double Reverse he follows with 1 2 3 of a Reverse Turn. The incline of the bodies on those first three of a Reverse Turn is so minimal it hardly shows. See for yourselves. A very tall dancer like Timothy Howson in his Foxtrot uses much more Sway than Marcus. The advice can only be, do the amount you are comfortable with and capable of and suits your style of dancing.
I think you will find that the difference between the Waltz and the Foxtrot concerning the sway and none sway is conected to the rise and fall in the Waltz and being on the toes in the Foxtrot on steps 2 to 7.
If you are like myself you will store that bit of information also and where you can advice people to go to look for themselves. Which thay can also do on this site. Good Luck. Let us all now close our eyes and Sway.

I watched the Hilton Videos and I observed plenty of sway. Simply put- Sway is inclination of the body to the right or to the left.

I think the Airplane example may be a bit confusing. Do the shoulders dip with sway? I thought Normal sway was initiated at the ankles and progresses upward through the hips, through the diaphragm but not the shoulders.

You can develop more sway as a natural inclination of the body in the opposite direction of moving leg. As someone pointed out, this must be with the” catching up” of the upper body to the pointed foot on turns which occurs on step three.

Continuing the simple- We create body sway through the use of side stretch. Stretch your right side and you sway left, but don't collapse your left side. Don't drop your left shoulder or raise the right shoulder. Involve the entire right side of the torso. As one teacher once said- it feel like you are inflating the right lung a little more than the left. Right sway would be the opposite.

Stationary sway may be introduced by inclination opposition to the weighted foot. Practice this for the effect. Sway Left and Right-watch the shoulders.

Broken sway can be introduced from the waist upward like in Change of Direction and Hesitation Change. This is easy to practice- watch the shoulders.

A lingering or hover sway would be toward the moving leg like in twinkle or Hover Telemark into Promenade.
This might also be used in conjunction with a checking motion like checking forward on the left foot the sway would be to the Left then you would lose that sway on the recovery action.

paul and dot. The areoplane example came from a Tape by John Wood. The whole of the plane I would hope would come into this manoeuvre otherwise a bit might drop off. I think the whole point is pointing out that no matter how small the turn there is Sway . A sharper Turn , more Sway. Run to the end of the passage and turn and come back. Didn't you Sway without thinking about it. Just let it happen.

Sway involves the hips and torso. I think it's inevitable that the shoulders will incline. I thought that the upper torso (from between shoulder blades up, including the head and shoulders) needed to stay in the same orientation. In other words, if the uper spine is inclined to the right by 15 degrees, the shoulders are sloped by 15 degrees.
It is of course important not to let the 'down' side slump down. Keep both sides 'stretched' to some extent. Or think 'UP' at all times.
I also thought that the 'down' arm should be brought up more to the horizontal, whereas the 'up' arm can be up. It's particularly easy for the man to drop the right arm excessively when swaying to the right (well, particularly easy for me, anyway )
The simple fact is that sway well done looks good.

If done correctly there is no need to stretch the sides, the reason being that with correct upper body swing the swing stretches the sides. It is only those dancers who do not use correct upper body swing that need to stretch the sides.

"My question was how do top professionals alter the alingment to get quality sway not how to dance a reverse weave,but thanks for all the info. "

1) By adding swing to a figure that in its basic definition does not have any.

2) By using the head weight a little bit to accelerate a downswing on the third step, but resolving this before the movement or posture gets out of control.

re: phil.samways comments
I do not disagree except for the statement- I thought that the upper torso (from between shoulder blades up, including the head and shoulders) needed to stay in the same orientation. In other words, if the uper spine is inclined to the right by 15 degrees, the shoulders are sloped by 15 degrees.
Here, I do not totally agree.
Stand in front of the mirror and sway your hips left or right. You can still keep your shoulders pretty much square to the floor. I agree there will be a tendency to drop the shoulders the same amount but with some effort, the drop can be less than the torso bends. (Your last paragraph helps with this in the turns.) It's easy to keep the shoulders square to the floor when dancing in a straight line. When in the turn, you have to train your body to act as an anti-sway bar to try to keep the shoulders square. The whole point is the shoulders may be a part of the overall sway but should not be the reason for the sway nor the focal point of the sway.

Hi Paul &Dot
Yes, it's not difficult to sway my hips and keep my shoulders horizontal. But this isn't what i try to do when i'm dancing. All the dancers i've watched show the shoulders and upper torso nicely 'aligned', as i tried to describe. For example (but by no means exclusively) Jonathan's slow waltz natural turn on this site.
On another point which was made by cdroge, it's true that with a movement like slow waltz natural turn, the strong swing gives a strong 'upward' feel, and this feeds into the sway. But there would be figures with much less swing (example, step 4 of a weave in foxtrot where the man steps back in CBMP and there is a sway to the left) and in an example like this, it's much easier for the man to collapse the left side (in this example).
I think it's very good advice to think of both sides being stretched and to think 'up' when swaying. This works in all cases(that's a dangerous thing to say!!)