🦶 Center of Support (COS)

You’ve probably heard of the Center of Gravity (COG) — but have you ever asked, “What is it balancing on?”

That’s where the Center of Support (COS) comes in and your COS is your foot. When we dance we are constantly moving from one place to another, changing weight, adding flourishes with the free leg. But whatever we are doing our standing foot is our COS.

The COS is the zone beneath your foot (or feet) where your body’s weight is being supported. In practical terms it's soles of your shoe. Ladies shoes generally have a smaller COS not just due to shoe size but because of the heel.

It’s not a single point — it’s a shape, a region. And if your COG stays within your COS you stay upright (and don't fall over).

🎯 Why It Matters in Dance

In physics terms:

• Your body forms a kind of inverted pendulum
• The COS is the base
• The COG is the top-heavy part swaying around

When the COG projects outside the COS?

• ⚠️ You’re tipping
• 🧠 Your muscles must reactively correct or you fall
• 💃 That correction costs energy and breaks fluidity

Good dancers manage this intuitively. Great dancers understand how it works — and use it to their advantage.

Your foot is your COS

Why? Because you are standing on one of them! With the exception of a few very special figures we spend most of our dancing lives on the COG of one foot or the other.

👣 COS and the Foot

Your foot isn’t a flat paddle. It’s curved, soft, and shaped by decades of wear and movement.
The COS is influenced by:

• Where pressure is distributed
• Which parts of the foot contact the floor
• Whether the heel is down or raised

We’ll show visual models of the COS over a dancer’s foot, and how it shifts dynamically through steps and rotations.

This isn’t just about “where your weight is.”
It’s about where your stability lives at any given moment.

👉 So lets look at our feet the literal foundation for our dancing.