As a matter of fact, there sure is.
First of all, Foxtrot is supposed to be danced with a strolling or laid back feeling, and musically this is achieved by dancing more loosely the beat than you might in, say, Tango.
Understand, though, that this is not done by approaching the rhythm in such a way that you deliberately try to step off-beat, or slightly late, or on any microscopically specific part of the beat. The important point is that the emphasis be on the movement, with the rhythm becoming the natural result.
Once you really grasp this concept, you'll have a much better understanding of how there can be so many different interpretations of the same rhythm -- SQQ. Within a certain framework, everybody has their own unique interpretation of the movement. It stands to reason, then, that within the same framework, everybody has their own unique interpretation of the resulting rhythm.
So let's talk about the framework, and you can develop your own interpretation.
A "slow" is not just a single point in time on which you place a step; It's a span of time (Two beats, to be specific). It has a beginning, a middle, and an end. Whereas in Rumba you would place your foot immediately at the beginning point of the slow, and then spend the entire span of the slow holding the posistion, a Foxtrot slow uses the entire span of time to move through the stride. So the foot is not actually placed until midway through the slow, which is usually somewhere around beat 2.
The span of a stride begins the moment your feet start opening, and continues until the time your body weight is fully received by the new foot. The actual placement of the foot -- the midstride -- occurs somewhere in the middle. The feet start opening at the beginning of beat one, moving throughout the entire slow and finishing the step with the weight fully over the new standing foot near the end of beat 2. That's a Foxtrot slow.
The first quick is placed right around the peak of acceleration, so it tends to be placed right on the third beat. The second quick should have a look of "drifting", so even though it's supposedly only 1 beat long, there should still be movement through the step, and not right down onto it. Therefore, you will sometimes (but not always) see people place this step ever-so-slightly behind the beat.
Again, rather than attempting to place your foot on any particular part of a beat, you should be focused on the movement, and the laid-back rhythm will naturally result. Work on the extension of your stride through a span of time, and on the continuation and release of body weight through the steps, allowing the body to drift across the feet instead of plopping down onto them. This is the stuff of really good Foxtrot.
I hope this helps.
Sincerely,
Jonathan Atkinson
