On which beats of the bar are the four steps of the feather step taken?

Thanks in advance for your reply.

Sincere regards,
Andrew.

What an issue. Since different books describe the figures differently, a description should specify how the steps are taken. Keh's description is for the leader stepping fwd S on the RF, then fwd Q on the LF, and fwd Q OP on the RF and I'm going to use the same. Keh's description is right for a basic timing. The S would be taken on the 1, the 1st Q on the 3, and the 2nd Q on the 4. This is a straight, plain, old SQQ rhythm.

I've also been to classes where we were taught a more advanced timing. The general concept behind it is that the S is all of two beats; you can actually put your foot down anywhere within that time span and still be on time. Similarly for the whole beat of a Q. I'm sure there are variations on this, too, but the way my regular teachers explained it was to take the S step on 2, the 1st Q on 3, and the 2nd Q on the & after 4. This is supposed to be a bit more musical than a straight SQQ/134 timing because you're stretching out the counts a little bit. If you count the duration of time between the foot placements, you don't get 2, 1, 1, you get 1, 1.5, 1.5. That's why this timing can be rather confusing, especially to beginners. However, I attended a workshop where the teacher explained this sort of timing by breaking down the motions the body has to go through. The way he/she (I forget) explained it, the timing made a lot more sense. My regular teachers didn't give the same sort of breakdown so it was harder for me to understand why and exactly how we were stretching out the counts.

I'd suggest starting off with the standard SQQ/134 rhythm and dance foxtrot like that. Once you're used to that and gain some more skills at dancing it (int'l foxtrot is notoriously difficult to do well), you can try moving on to a more advanced timing.
--
James Marshall
marshall@astro.umd.edu
http://www.astro.umd.edu/~marshall

[This message was edited by Dronak on 07-27-02 at 03:22 PM.]

Thanks for your replies.
You are saying that the quicks occur on steps 3 and 4.
This is what I am doing. We start our exam routine with a feather step which is preceeded by a preparatory slow step on the left foot so that the quicks occur on beats 1 and 2 of the following bar. Is this technically correct?

Sincere Regards,
Andrew

Since nobody answered. I will try. I am not expert though.

From Alex Moore's book:

The Feather-step consists of a slow step followed by a type of Three-step in which the man steps outside the lady on the second quick step.

As far as my understanding for doing 4 step Feather the 4th step is actually the first step of the following fiqure. Say, if you are dancing Feather followed by Reverse Wave. That 4th step of Feather then would be the 1st step of Reverse Wave.

Now for the timing of said 4-step Feather would be slow, quick, quick, slow. Or 1-2, 3, 4, 1-2, where the 4th step(slow) or last 1-2 would land on the next measure(bar) of the music.

Other amalgamations to consider include:

1. Feather down the LOD, into the Three-step and then Natural turn.

2. Feather diagonally to the center, then into any reverse figure.

3. Feather diagonally into a corner and followed by a Change of Direction.

Line 3 should read beats 3 and 4 and not steps 3 and 4

Thank you.

Well, yeah, it's OK to dance the quicks on 1 and 2, but it should feel a little funny. It's not technically wrong, but it doesn't really match the music as well as taking the quicks on 3 and 4. Our teachers called a few figures "off phrase figures" because they put your following figure on 3-12, away from the usual 1-34. They said the same thing, it's not *really* wrong, but it should feel a little odd. So you correct by doing another off phrase figure ASAP after the first. Or if you're doing open, you just mess with the figures (e.g., a Change of Direction can easily be held for an extra S to stay on phrase if you're not doing syllabus). If you're starting off phrase, I'd suggest taking your prep step as I was taught -- use a LF fwd step, quick, on 4. You can make it a slow starting on 3 if you like instead; I prefer a Q prep step in foxtrot though. That starts the feather step on the 1 and puts your initial two quicks on 3 and 4.

--
James Marshall
marshall@astro.umd.edu
http://www.astro.umd.edu/~marshall