I teach heel turns without making any turn at all. When pupils get together, in couples, I ask the person making the outside turn action to turn the person on the inside. You can hear the pennies drop, in comprehension.

I don't think attributing two beats to the first step is correct, in a heel pull, but by all means slow down the SECOND step, and make it last nearly two beats. In Waltz you could time the movement 1 23 & to good effect.

This is true in Japan also...I live in Japan and the man always holds his heel up to dance...only ladies do a true heel turn

ALWAYS ?.. I dont think so.. they would never advance to final rounds of major comps ( as many do ) if they had that "technique "... the normal lowering required in ALL B/room dance is taught exactly the same way in all countries that dance the Intern. style

The major difference between the lady's heel turns and a man's literal heel turn (as in a textbook impetus) is that when the lady dances the heel turn both partners rise at the end of one, but when the man dances it both partners rise at the end of two (the lady will come onto a toe on step 2, but a very low one - she is not "up" until he leads rise at the completion of the turn)

The woman's rise at the end of count one is body rise only while the man's is a true foot rise.

Therefore, it is more than a little misleading to claim that "when the lady dances the heel turn both partners rise at the end of one, . . ."

Consider the reverse turn in Fox Trot, for example, where the man's early foot rise assists his partner with her heel turn. The woman's body rise is necessary only to accommodate the man's movement.

jj

Sorry. Got that wrong. That was of course the Reverse Turn. Just switch it around.

Now, you're guilty of oversimplification, too, for while foot rise is the most visible and obvious component of rise, it is only one of four: increased elevation created by bracing leg muscles; straightning of the knees; stretching upwards of the body AND raising the heels from the floor. The cumulative effect of the NFR elements are greater, arguably, than foot rise on its own (not that you could, ever, have foot rise only), but on a FT Reverse Turn we have lady "rising slightly e/o 1 NFR", which is slightly different from both suggestions on the topic.

No, I'm pretty sure that it isn't.

jj

I'm interested that Telemark says a heel turn is essentially flat and that there is no lifting the toes. In my Int. Stand. lessons we are definitely taught to lift our toes (both of them) during a heel turn, whatever the dance. I follow, but I also see the leaders being taught to do this.

I believe you may have mis interpreted the context.. Yes, the Toe does release as the back ward step commences, but then it MUST lower to a FLAT foot.. as will the next action ( it wouldnt be a heel turn, would it ?, without )..

Like most footwork thats says " Toe release " it is usually accepted that the foot will return to a normal flat position , and the point of this is to allow contact with the floor, providing a " skimming " action, until it reaches its destination where it should have completely lowered .

Get your teacher to show the mechanics of how the feet respond , from the commencement of the action to completion..

In addition, watch some vid. of top flite Profs...