Hi all!

I'm getting really confused about which foot (man's) one is meant to commence on in ballroom dances and variations of these. In England it seems to be common to start stepping forward on the left. On one very thorough website (which I could not find again in order to quote the url) this was equally recommended.
Now I see in another forum on this website that Gracie recommends in swing dance to start off on the right foot. I have also seen the same thing in continental Europe's social dancing.
Is there any one agreed convention, or is it down to local etiquette?

Phillip,
It was hard to tell one Philip from the Phillip for a moment there, and I thought you were thanking yourself for your introspective insights on leading the cuban breaks.. Glad I paused to take a second look.

I have no specific insight on the leading of the cuban break except to say this. I have always been told that a lead comes from the body. If you have ever played telephone as a child, with two coke cans and a string, you will understand the importance of the 'tautness' of the string in between for the messages to go through. So keep that connection tight and toned, and take small steps (since this is a timed step), and you should be able to lead this figure too. That's my opinion.

Of course, if you dance frequently enough with this woman, you could develop your own routine to aid in the signal of the cuban break.

To get to your question on convention - to my knowledge, there is none. You will find many standard dancers start their first figure of a dance on their right foot - albeit with a preceding single "prep-step" on the left foot to 1) indicate to the woman that he is ready to go, and 2) to commence the dance from a moving instead of a standing position. Now I am not sure what you mean about starting a swing/jive on the right foot, I have seldom seen people do that (lest it was a description of the woman's figure). Perhaps you mean the prep step? Anyway, the point is this. A good dancer can and will signal the position of his weight to his partner. Once she is on the correct foot, complementary to the one on which he stands, it is just a matter of body language to communicate the beginning of the dance. The remedy to this is to take your partner's hand (or her in your arms, based on the dance of choice); once in position, shift your weight from left to right and back again. She will follow you, if she is a good follower, and you will both be on the "correct" foot and ready to start a dance.

You possibly already know all of this. Good luck and enjoy.

Sri.

Thank you, Sri. You have confirmed my suspicions. I guess my problem is that I want to make the best use of the music, and so plunge right in. I think as far as ballroom goes, I'm probably a good leader, and for instance, in the Quickstep, as you hint, the best thing is to take a step (which in my opinion need not be small) on the left foot before you start the basic (oh, I'm talking International style). If the girl is counting, then she may figure that I'm going to start off on a left (I tend to dance with partners I already know - possibly not the best habit). This first step would be taken on the second beat of the bar, where you count two beats to each bar of music. Of course, in Quickstep, not all steps finish on an even number of beats, so this becomes ambiguous as you keep dancing, and again, is just convention rather than the "correct" thing to do, even though it feels right.
For the benefit of anyone else looking at this discussion: One important thing to do when leading into a dance is to start moving well before the beat you intend to start on, falls, and if you start stepping forward, then you must make sure your body moves before your feet do, otherwise you may kick your partner.
Once started, in ballroom dance you would always keep your weight approximately between your feet, to form an isosceles triangle between your two legs as the equal sides and the floor.
Body contact helps