To describe steps with precision, it is necessary to use a system of choro-stenography not easily learned, or to refer to positions of the feet. The latter is the usual method, and long usage proves its adequacy. The following arbitrary designation of positions of the feet has long been standard wherever Occidental dancing is taught:
Simple positions one to five, inclusive, are the fundamentals, which are modified in a great variety of ways. Figures 6 and 7 represent instances of such modification.
The weight may be upon both feet, or either.
In third, fourth and fifth positions: speaking of either foot (say the right) it is said to be in anterior or posterior third, fourth or fifth position.
Second and fourth positions are defined as closed or amplified, according as the feet are separated by the length of a foot, or more.
The positions, unless otherwise specified, indicate both feet on the floor. But the second, third and fourth positions sometimes relate to positions in which one foot is raised; for instance, right foot in raised second position.