Open Telemark Waltz or Foxtrot . On the third step which is in Promenade. How far apart in inches is the Ladies RF to the man's LF. This is something that never gets explained by teachers. In Alex Moore's book each square is 2 foot by 2 foot and the foot positions are to scale.

Hi Polished
I think you'll find it is indeed talked about by teachers in private lessons, because it depends on the couple. The feet have to allow the 'inside' legs of the couple to come through without distorting their shape. I don't think a diagram in Alex Moore's book was ever intended to be used as a fixed value for all time and all dancers.

It's easy enough to look at Moore's chart, and work out the distance between the feet, if you think it matters. Most of us have a pretty good idea what PP is; but I feel sure that you're about to tell us that we are all mistaken.

How do you suppose teachers teach - by mime? Of course they explain foot positions.

CliveHarrison. Among Social Dancers and low grade competition dancers anything that is in a Promenade is usually pretty bad. If they were given an exact amount of what is allowable from the very beginning they would have a clear understanding of what it should be. I would get them to, on a piece of A4 paper, put a dot right in the centre and draw a line to each of the top corners. That I would explain is Diagonal to the wall with the LOD and Diagonal to wall against the LOD. Halve the distance to the left and halve it again and again. With the ladies left toe pointing LOD that is about how far the RF should be from the mans LF with the sides of the body over the feet. Which would be about two floor boards wide give or take nine inches.Has any teacher at any time ever spoke like that. I have struck only one and that was on an Open Impetus. Which he carried through to an Open Telemark and spoke about the two floor boards wide also on a Promenade in the Tango. At that time he had only just arrived back from the UK.

I suppose that if the sub-species of social dancers and all those low grade competitors were being told such rubbish, they would be well served by asking around to see if anyone could introduce them to a decent teacher.

Most people are familiar with diagrams showing "Directions of Steps or Positions of Body in Relation to the Room" (Alex Moore's coming immediately to mind). We have the right hand side of the diagram helpfully marked "Side of Room", and the Centre is to the left. LOD is up and against LOD is down. We have the eight directions we all know, and can see how to interpret the alignment instructions given in the technique books. However, as the social dancers and low grade competitors presumably couldn't be expected to own technique books, we hope that their teachers will explain in terms that their limited capacity for dancing can comprehend.

Now, we have your diagram. Centre is centre, and we have but two lines, both extending from the centre of the paper to the top corners. But the paper isn't square: it's A4, so the angles are not right - never mind. By careful deduction, we spot that the line leading to the top right corner must be diag to wall, but of course, we find that the other is the exact OPPOSITE of diag to wall against LOD - for it is diag to centre.

Back to those lines: three quarters of the way from the centre point to the corners we mark the two lines (label them: "Toes here, stupid") and measure the distance between the points: 6 1/4 inches, give or take). Hmm.

Now I take my partner onto the dance floor, and facing DC, I dance an open telemark. Our feet didn't end up where the diagram said. Where did I go wrong? I think I'll just stick to social dancing, thanks.

The first thing that you "did wrong" was to take Polished seriously.

A good instructor will demonstrate a figure and then repeatedly correct its execution by the students until they can consistently perform the figure properly. Their points of reference must be on the dance floor and not a piece of paper.

Dancing has no use for protractors and compasses.

jj

Hey, P/s/Q, how about the subspecies of illiterate ballroom dancers and low-grade intellects posing as experts?

Do yourself and the rest of us a favor and have an educated colleague proofread the nonsense that you call writing before you post it on this or any other site.

BTW, those "social dancers" which you so casually disdain provide the bulk of the financing for ballroom dancing around the world.

jj

You need to realise .. NOW... that dance is about opinion.. some factual some theoretical.

Some teachers will have differing opinions , and the " book " as you are so fond of quoting, is a GUIDE .

Dance cannot be done with a slide rule .

The size of movement is ,in somecases , in relationship to the specific person .
No " trained " dancer is going to intentionally disregard sound theoretical practices .

Let me pass on this nugget that Scriv. once noted

" Dont get hung up on your feet and forget how to dance ! ".

many on this site seem to frequently lose the plot ..

Remember,....

Paralysis by analysist

Ah, this site is great! Where else can you get so much entertainment without a subscription?

You will never dance an open telemark well by worrying about where to put the feet.

What you should do is worry about where you want to send the bodies and what type of action you want to occur in those bodies.

The feet simply fall where they have to in order to support the desired movement of the bodies.

Understand the bodies well, and what the feet should do is obvious enough to usually not need comment.

But try to dance the footprints, and your bodies will be a mess.