"If you stay approximately half way between your feet, and never allow the foot to move without the body you will be reasonably close to correct."

If you do that, then obviously your body will have traveled beyond your standing foot long before your moving foot has reached its position and become ready to receive any body weight. Which is to say, you will have PROJECTED YOUR BODY PAST YOUR ONLY SUPPORTING FOOT, INTO IMBALANCE.

"The moving foot gets out ahead of the body observing the rules as above. This will in no way contradict the technique book."

The technique book is quite clear that the body starts moving BEFORE THE FOOT DOES. That means that early in the action, the body will be ahead of the foot (and this is precisely what this famous teacher was demonstrating). Only once the action is well underway will the moving foot get ahead of the body.

Try this . With the knee flexed ready to move. Quote.
Begin moving your foot and your body forward. . For every 2- 3 inches the foot is in motion count 1 2 3. See if you can get to all the way to 10 before the foot takes weight and has to stop moving
There is one stipulation though. You cannot count if the foot is moving by its self. Your count must start when the body starts moving forward and must stop when the foot takes weight. The test is how long can you keep your moving foot in motion. Also do this exercise on forward steps, back steps. and from a forward steps from the Toes
TH. And back steps from the Toes. End of Quote.
Phil. You wrote 2/26/2004 that you were going to print this and practise. Did you or is it forgotten.

"Begin moving your foot and your body forward. . For every 2- 3 inches the foot is in motion count 1 2 3. See if you can get to all the way to 10 before the foot takes weight and has to stop moving. There is one stipulation though. You cannot count if the foot is moving by its self. Your count must start when the body starts moving forward and must stop when the foot takes weight. The test is how long can you keep your moving foot in motion."

It you obey the stipulation - which is to say, if you keep your body moving, it will soon be projecting into imbalance because it will soon have travelled quite a bit more than the short length of the standing foot. The degree to which you can keep the step going, and avoid landing on the moving foot sooner than intended, then depends on three things;

1) How much you drive from the standing leg. Drive can keep your body up (or at least upright in a good vertical posture), though only in concert with accelerating your movement, because you are supporting the body in an unbalanced position.

2) How strong your standing toes are. The stronger your toes, the more forward in your foot you can put your point of support, and thus the more you can move your body forwards before you even start to go off balance.

3) How LATE you bring your moving foot through. The moving leg weighs quite a bit. Even with the foot on the floor, having it out in front of your body would cause you to go into imablance sooner. But if it does not pass your body until the movement is well established, you can delay the point when the leg itself causes you to have to put weight on it.

It should be noted that a lot of students first given such an exercise will hold their hips back to retain balance as they "move" their shoulders forward, and claim that this contstitutes moving their body. Given how horrible such hunching forwards makes things for a partner, it's clear that it doesn't. To be moving, you must be moving your hips and center, and that will very soon mean that they are no longer over your standing foot. It's the ability to keep extending a step after it reaches the point of imblance which seperates the large and full travel of champions from more casual dancers.

I will argue that you should not use the word imbalanced . If I am a trained dancer I will not be imbalanced unless my moving foot has no contact with the floor. This is not going to happen therefore i am balanced at all times . This is copied from a previous posting. " If you try to stay halfway between the feet and you never allow the foot to move without the body. You will be reasonably close to correct". To that i will add . Watch a trained athelite a runner. What do you see. You will see a body that apears to have no motion. It is carried by the legs.

"I will argue that you should not use the word imbalanced ."

It may not be traditional to use the word, but it is uncontradicable PHYSICAL FACT. As soon as your body has traveled beyond your standing toe, you are OFF BALANCE.

"If I am a trained dancer I will not be imbalanced unless my moving foot has no contact with the floor."

Yes you will. I thought this challenge was actually rather insightful, because it took this into account. Remember the exact boundaries in the challenge:

"Your count must start when the body starts moving forward and must stop when the foot takes weight."

Obiously the moving foot is on the floor during the entire exercise, but the test is over as soon as it takes weight. A FOOT THAT IS NOT BEARING WEIGHT CANNOT CONTRIBUTE SUPPORT TO YOUR BALANCE. It is on the floor but it is NOT helping to hold you up until it stops moving and accepts your weight.

You agree the moving foot is on the floor. With the weight over the standing foot that is 100 percent body weight. As the foot and the body move. Do i still have 100 percent over my rear foot. If not where has it gone. But if i have NO contact with the floor with my moving leg then i am falling, now i know where it has gone. If i tried to dance that way with my teacher he would disown me.. As i have said before in our studio each will have to come out and do a routine solo. Any bad footwork shows up imediately. The above mentioned would not be allowd. Does that make sense to anyone out there Don't be scared to criticize. Criticism Welcomed

"You agree the moving foot is on the floor."

Yes. There's no reason for it not to be.

"With the weight over the standing foot"

NO WAY! The weight is 100 % ON the standing foot, but it cannot STAY OVER the standing foot. The test requires that you MOVE YOUR BODY. As soon as you have moved it the length of your standing foot, it CAN NO LONGER BE OVER THE STANDING FOOT.

"As the foot and the body move. Do i still have 100 percent over my rear foot. If not where has it gone."

The ONLY SUPPORT is that provided by the standing foot, but the body is NOT OVER THE STANDING FOOT. It can't be, unless it has STOPPED moving when it reached the standing toe. If that had happened, then you broke the rules of the test, which require that you can only count while your body is moving.

"But if i have NO contact with the floor with my moving leg then i am falling"

Your test is over when the moving leg takes weight. During the time when your moving leg IS NOT BEARING WEIGHT, IT CANNOT KEEP YOU FROM FALLING. It's on the floor, but it's not allowed to support your body weight. If it's holding you up and preventing you from falling, then it is bearing weight and you must stop counting.

What the test you quoted actually does is show you how DRIVE lets you keep moving EVEN AS YOU FALL. In fact, drive can actually let you GAIN ALTITUDE AS YOU FALL - if the drive overpowers the fall.

Why make it so complicated. All I want to know is where has the weight from standing over my standing leg gone when my body and my leg start to move forward. With contact with the floor surely there is a transfering of the said weight from the rear foot to the front. And not as you seem to believe there is none untill the end of the step. All I want to know is where has it gone. If it is not over the back foot, and there is none on the moving foot which is on the floor. Where is it. Its time for Mr Spock to beam you up and then put you down again. Just like that midpoint of which you believe there is none. I am borrowing some of these comments. I don't want to upset anybody by being a line stealer. That i am using them is reward enough i hope. You know this is better than " Desperate Houswives".

"Why make it so complicated. All I want to know is where has the weight from standing over my standing leg gone when my body and my leg start to move forward."

The weight pressure remains on the standing foot, but the BODY IS SOON NO LONGER POSITIONED OVER THE STANDING FOOT. It cannot stay there and also keep moving, because as soon as it has moved more than the lenght of the foot it will have to be beyond the foot. But even then, the weight will still be ON the foot that it is NO LONGER OVER.

"With contact with the floor surely there is a transfering of the said weight from the rear foot to the front."

According to the rules of the test THAT YOU YOURSELF POSTED, the count "must stop when the foot takes weight." So clearly, this is a test of what happens BEFORE THERE IS WEIGHT ON THE MOVING FOOT.

"And not as you seem to believe there is none untill the end of the step."

There is none until the end of the test, which will occur sometime around the extent of the stride aka the MIDPOINT of the step, when the moving foot takes some or all of the weight.

"All I want to know is where has it gone. If it is not over the back foot"

From the time the body passes the toe, until the time when the moving foot receives weight, the weight is ON the back foot, but not OVER the back foot.
During this time, the body is OFF BALANCE. What your test does is tests your ability to use DRIVE to SUSTAIN MOVEMENT WHILE UNBALANCED.

None of this is going to make any sense to you until you wake up and realize that there is a huge DIFFERENCE BETWEEN the meanings of "ON" and "OVER".

OK Houdini. Even then the weight will still be on the foot that it is no longer over. I also saw the film The Man who Never Was.
You've got that wrong which is. You stop counting. You must stop when the foot takes weight.
Putting all jokes aside. do you really believe that you and a partner could even remember in quick sequence most of the stuff you have unloaded on this site. Imaginary conversation. "Here i go to the point of imbalance , now i'm falling onto my next step. How are you going. Fine i'm imbalanced and about to fall onto my next step. Which of us is listening to the music. Not me i've got enough to think about. Are we standing up straight. Of course not. My body is in front of my front foot. How can i be standing up straight.