Instructions
- Step 1: Face one another Face your partner, your right side aligned with the middle of your partner’s body.
- Step 2: Maintain the frame Clasp fingers — the man’s left hand, the woman’s right — with palms together, at eye level. Rest your opposite hand on your partner’s shoulder blade.
- Step 3: Take a slow first step Step slowly forward with your left foot if you’re the man — or backwards if you’re the woman — as the music starts, sliding your opposite foot to meet the lead one.
- Step 4: Advance with right foot Advance again, the man’s right foot slowly stepping as the woman strides back with her left, both again sliding the opposite foot to meet.
- TIP: Try variations of the fox-trot, like the progressive, which can sometimes resemble the polka.
- Step 5: Step quick Take a wide, quick step to your left if you’re the man, the woman mimicking with her right, sliding the foot to meet again. The rhythm is two beats for each “Slow, slow,” and one beat for each “quick, quick.”
- Step 6: Reverse these steps Reverse the steps, the man striding back as the female advances and again, the man steps to his left and the woman to her right on the quick steps.
- TIP: Respect your partner and don’t throw in new moves without preparing them.
- Step 7: Repeat Repeat around the floor. Smile, even if your partner steps on your foot.
- FACT: The fox-trot is said to have been named for Harry Fox, a Vaudeville performer around, who sped up his two-steps to trotting to a ragtime beat.
You Will Need
- Partner
- Music
