". I come to the conclusion that you do not bend flex re-charge or whatever you care to call it . You do not bend your knees. Therefore you never get that 45 degree angle that will result by bending the knees. The only way you can get your body in front of the legs is to have 1950's legs."

Well you are wrong. I do it much as the lady if picture two of the forward walk shown here does it - I bend my standing knee and advance my vertically aligned body forwards of the knee.

The important difference between what I do and what is clearly shown in picture two is that my moving knee/foot would not yet be in advance of my body. Instead, my body would be projected into empty space - VERTICALLY ALIGNED from teh standing the knee up, but very briefly forward of both feet. Obviously that is not a position that can be held - it is one that you pass through on the way to something else.

"If the knee is bending and the body is verticle the knee has to be ahead of body"

No - if you would open your eyes, you would see that picture two proves otherwise, by showing you how you can have the BODY VERTICALLY ALIGNED OVER THE BENT STANDING KNEE. The standing knee is UNDER the body, not ahead of it. And unlike the mistaken picture, my moving knee would not yet be ahead of my body by more than a trivial amount either.

"When you look at the computer images I don't think you see any of the above mentioned. Some people call the inabilty to see the whole picture. Tunnel Vision."

You words describe you own problem perfectly! I've been describing picture two to you for months now, and you still haven't taken an honest look at it.

"Do you have flexed knees at the end of a Forward or a Backward Walk."

Yes, when I PRACTICE a "walk". But remember that I never dance the exercise called a "walk" when I am actually dancing. Instead, I dance actions which are desceneded form walks, but always different - they are dance actions, not exercises, and each of them differs from the "Walk" in a variety of critical ways. See below for an example:

"Do you believe we should come over that straight leg with no flexing of the knee onto the next step."

Only if leading a follower's heel turn, otherwise the knee should flex as the body comes over the foot. Of course that is for a heel lead action. When coming onto the toe (ball), as on the second step of a feather, the knee will flex fairly little, if at all.

Anonymous. You can not bend the knee to 45 degrees as on the display and have the body ahead of the knee unless you lean forward. It is not possible.

"Anonymous. You can not bend the knee to 45 degrees as on the display and have the body ahead of the knee unless you lean forward. It is not possible."

Well, that's an intersting comment. Since the picture clearly shows a vertical body (NO LEANING) over a bent knee, that leaves just two possibilites:

1) Don't theory is wrong

2) Jonathan's picture is wrong.

Since Don was singing the praises of the accuracy of Jonathan's pictures, this would seem to put Don in a bit of a tight spot!

Sorry folks, we are arguing over a typo.

It should be body "over" the standing knee, not body "forward" of the standing knee.

This of course puts the entire body well forward of the standing foot. And if the moving foot has not yet swung, forwards of the moving foot too.

Anonymous .Ty it anyone. As the heel lowers to the floor and the knee is bent the weight will be over the heel, my knee will be the furthest part of me which is forward. The more I bend the further forward it goes. There can only be one movement of the remainder of my body and that is moving from my heel to my toe without bending forward. At the same time my foot which just happens to be atached to the bottom of my leg takes over by going forward. With the body behind it. Look at the pictures.Again the body is behind the moving foot and not in front. Don't bring the position of the body weight in relation to your back foot. This is your usuall get out by starting to bring the rear foot into the argument. That one is long past. With split weight there is only one place that foot can be and that is to the rear . But then because it doesn't suit your argument you have said many times there is no split weight position. Which anybody can see for themselves there is.

Hi Don and all the Anonymous,
Once should remember the clip is only for our reference for a better understanding.
I have just seent the backward clip and i can only give my comments based on what i have learnt and understand.
Looking closely at the heel of the back leg - The heel shouldn't touch the floor until the whole body wt arrives over the standing foot. Looking at the clip it looks or apprear that the heel touches the floor before the moving foot crosses the other standing foot (full body wt hasn't arrivied yet)..which accelerats the body fwd which in not what we want.
My point is instead of arguing on the clip, use the clip as a reference and go and dance the step and try to feel the body wt remaining fwd at all time and the heel tocuhing the floor when the body wt arrives.

Twinkletoes. Anonymous does not believe that the heel only lowers as the moving foot arrives under the body. I do as I have said enough times by writting the passages from the technique book.

To be specific, the appropriate time for the heel to lower depends on the specific type of step being performed.

There are numerous varieties of backwards TH - for some clue as to the differences, look at the range of different things that other partner is doing during them.

These differences will obviously influence the action of the partner who has TH, creating many different varieites of TH action. But that is too detailed for the textbook, which just calls them all TH, which in fact they are.

Anonymous. If you want to be really technical about the footwork going Backwards it is Ball Toe Heel in that order.
It is never a good idea to go to the other persons steps as a guide ever . A prime example is step six on a Reverse Turn. One is up the other is down through the feet.
On a step forward the man will lower the toe to the ground before the lady lowers the heel. But what would I know. I'm only a beginner. Which means you find out for yourselves and value it up.

"Anonymous. If you want to be really technical about the footwork going Backwards it is Ball Toe Heel in that order."

There are many differences between the official technical summary and the details of execution, yes. I was pointing out that you had the official summary wrong in several resepects - what it applies to, and even the literal direction.

"It is never a good idea to go to the other persons steps as a guide ever . A prime example is step six on a Reverse Turn. One is up the other is down through the feet."

A perfect example of why you MUST pay attention to the other person's steps. Without realizing that your partner does not have foot rise, you might be tempted to rise too high. Because your partner does not have foot rise, you must keep your own rise quite moderate, or you will likely prevent her timely heel lowering (a very commonly seen fault)