This age old often not understood question comes up.The lecturer demonstrated the first step of a Feather Step and stopped on the second step. He then said . Listen to the question very carefully. Which was. In relation to the body what was the length of my first step. He got answeres like 2 foot 2 1/4 foot and so on. No he said. Those answers are in relation to the room and not in relation to the body. As the foot clears the standing foot and becomes a heel it stands still in relation to the body, and is moved by the standing foot. In my case he said it moves no more than about 4 to 6 inches. So those of you who think the body goes in front of the foot. Think again. The foot is there, about 4 to 6 inches in front, and is being driven by the back foot.

This is a good exercise to make students aware of the usage of the standing foot to contribute to the stride. However, it's not an entirely accurate representation of the reality. Reaching the moving foot out ahead before beginning to move the body is as problematic as moving the body without allowing the moving foot to extend.

In your average walk, both feet work at the same time. The moving foot is moving away from the body at roughly the same speed the body moves away from the standing foot. This leaves you at mid-stride between your feet with one foot in front and one foot behind.

I say "roughly" because each type of movement calls for a slightly different action. And even within a single walk, the speeds of the feet and body are not necessarily constant throughout. But if you take a basic walk and take an average of the foot and body speeds from beginning to end, you should get about a 2-to-1 ratio.

That being said, I am a very big fan of the exercise Cyd described. It's very effective in moving beginners in the right direction. But I would always at least start off with a disclaimer that it is, in fact, only an exercise, to be further developed later on.

Another similar exercise which emphasizes the usage of the standing leg is what I call the "10-count walk". The student counts while taking a step, from the moment the feet begin to part until the moment the moving foot stops moving at mid-stride. Counting should only take place when BOTH the foot AND the body are in motion at the same time. If the foot is moving without the body, or vice-versa... no counting. The goal is to reach 10.

The actual number and speed of counting are irrelevant; The point is to improve one's ability to sustain enough weight on the standing foot to keep moving as long as possible. As long as the speed of the counting is fairly consistent, the exercise works when the student increases his numbers over time. As the teacher, I count at approximately the right speed to allow my well-trained body to arrive at a 10. I then count at the same speed for my student, and challenge them to aim for 10. The first time they try, they may only make it as far as 2. Within the first couple minutes of effort, with awareness alone, they can usually double that. They can often add 2 or 3 more counts with improved technique within a few days or weeks. The remaining counts take at least several months as the ankle strength builds.

The same exercise can be done for foot closure (from mid-stride to the end of the step), once again emphasizing foot and body moving simultaneously and arriving together. After a while, you can evolve into a series of consecutive walks (10 counts to open, 10 to close). Eventually, when the student knows Bronze Foxtrot, the exercise can be applied to the entire Foxtrot amalgamation, complete with rise & fall, turn & shaping.

Regards,
Jonathan

Jonathan. Is your 1 to 10 exercise simply to emphasize staying on the standing leg longer, and using the strongest muscle in our body to push us forward. The longer we stand on it and compress, the more power we store. Do you agree that the foot will always, and has always had the ability to move faster than the body without us having to do anything about it at all.Its as natural as breathing.Just the same as the hand is quicker than the eye, so the foot is quicker than the body.

"so the foot is quicker than the body."

That's quite consistent with habitually giving the body a head start. As you point out, the foot will have no trouble catching up and getting any needed distance ahead. Nobody has any problem with that... but what they do often having a problem with is getting their foot moving while their body remains stationary over the standing foot, which is a dreadful mistake.

It is the progression of the body, not the catch-up of the foot, which commences and guides each step. But keeping the body in smooth motion requires greater strength, so many without this get in the habit of moving their body in stops and starts, spending most of their time stationary over the foot and as little time as possible in motion. Needless to say, that's not a very nice way to dance. At entry level socials they often play the music notably faster to accommodate such dancers - by increasing the tempo, those who stepped too quickly won't have to spend as much time awkwardly waiting for the next beat.

The emphasis is not the pushing, but developing the control with the supporting leg and foot to sustain our weight longer between the feet.

By "Staying on the standing foot longer", do you mean staying positioned over the standing foot, or simply being supported by it? If you meant the former, then absolutely not. The exercise stresses continuous simultaneous movement of the foot and body at all times.

Actually, you gain nothing by standing on the foot. Compression, perhaps, but with consecutive progressive movement, that happens during the closing of the previous step.

Regards,
Jonathan

"By "Staying on the standing foot longer", do you mean staying positioned over the standing foot, or simply being supported by it? If you meant the former, then absolutely not. The exercise stresses continuous simultaneous movement of the foot and body at all times."

Jonathan, I would of course agree with you of the importance of the body continuing to move and not stopping stationary in place over the standing foot. The ability of a dancer to be physically comfortable when "just barely on" the standing foot, both at the arriving end and the departing end, rather than being forced to move abruptly directly over one foot to directly over the other, is absolutely key to achieving confidence in presentation and good musical timing.

However, I would point out that some notable additional improvement in experiencing and portraying a sense of calm mastery can be achieved by having a brief period where the body is in motion, but neither foot is. This is especially true when lowering into a side leading position preceding a CBMP step - establishing the body on a clear trajectory towards the creation of a CBMP step before letting the departed foot begin to close substantially increases the "weight" of the action. If one watches typical intermediate dancers, it eventually becomes apparent that a lot of lack of gravity to their action comes from the foot-focus, rather than body-focus of their movement - a little body movement before the feet join in turns this around, both making the dancing appear more grounded and encouraging evolution towards a more substantial lowering and body swing.

Something I have found very useful when discussing these mechanics with others is to stand us both in that side leading position, and experiment with "biasing" the body towards one foot or the other, setting up for a potential subsequent CBMP step forward or backward.. This gives a sense of the range of motion that the body can have during that period when neither foot is in motion. In effect the body pulls away from one foot, stretching a bit, then this stretch releases almost rubber-band-like to begin the leg swing. It also fits very well with the frequent coaching recommendation to feel the actual CBMP step as the right knee moving across the body to the left shoulder, rather than the right hip swinging.

Jonathan. Which moves first the torso or the movement from the feet. The torso is the upper body which does not include the head or the limbs. If we had no legs could we move the torso. The torso needs the slight raising of the heels to move the body. Even a fraction of an inch off either or both feet will do it. That will cause the knees to flex slightly or more, which sends the body forward. The question to be answered is. Can a man with no legs move the body.
The other thing is . On page 9 in Alex Moore's book.Is he writting about starting from a standing still position.The very next sentence tell us to take care not to alter the upright position of the body from the hips upwards. As I pointed out before the Moving foot will pass the standing foot before the body is moved by the standing foot by raising the heel of the supporting foot. The body remains upright. The foot moves first.
I can understand that a teacher taking a class sees some of the class back weighted and stepping from a flat supportng foot where the heel is not leaving the floor, might suggest to get the weight forward. But does that make it the correct thing to do..

The " pitch " in a partnership ( or without ), initiates the fwd action,,, the compression from the supporting leg creates the kinetic energy needed to complete the desired direction and speed .. hence,, motion...

If your weight is in the correct position ( over the ball of the foot ) the slightest body projection will initiate the fwd motion ..as the "body " commences its pitch, the flexing of the knee and releasing of the heel, happens simultaneously.

And.. could a man with no legs move fwd ( or back ) of course.. he would fall over,, but move he did !

A better e.g... watch a baby try to take its first steps.. it thrusts its body fwd without using its leg to " catch " the falling body.. hence the term " body falls, leg catches " .

Terence. I can't by that. I still say a person with no limbs and without moving the head forward cannot move. And what about if our movement in dancing is to the side. Would you say that the body moves first there also. How about to the side and slightly back. Do you guys actually watch a top dancer frame by frame. Maybe you might like to take a look at a Closed Change on this site and tell me what do you actally see. And if you watch John Wood in action. His foot goes way out in front, much further than the one on this site even.
This not a Rumba Walk we are discussing where the body does go to the point of imbalance and is then caught by the moving foot.

Anybody. Answer this. According to the Technique books, all of them. On a Forward Walk in the Standard Syle at the full extent of the stride as the front heel is on the floor and the ball of the rear foot is also on the floor. Exactly at this point where is the body.
Untill this is is understood and is done correctly, nothing we do will be right..