Flooring it: one key to dancing well--and long--is right beneath your feet.

This is the first of a four-part intermittent series on dance-floor issues as seen by different parts of the dance community. Future installments will focus on facility owners, purchasing and installation issues, as well as medical research and practice.

WHAT'S THE MOST IMPORTANT PIECE OF equipment a dancer uses? Ask a few and you'll get strong opinions about everything from toe tape to tap shoes. Some swear by just one brand of tights, while others describe the search for perfect pointe shoes as their personal odyssey. What you won't hear mentioned is the one item that doesn't fit in a dance bag--the floor. It's the one item you can't dance without, and its quality can contribute to either inspired performances or injuries. Most dancers know this even if they don't grasp the finer points of subfloors, basket-weave construction, or professionally taped marley. But few realize how important a good floor is until they've experienced less-than-ideal conditions.

Gene Vanasse, national contracts administrator for the American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA), has a bird's-eye view of dance floors across the country. "There's a range of safe-floor standards out there that depends mostly on the budget of the particular dance company," says Vanasse. "Professional theaters usually have a sprang floor, and all have at least a marley floor for the stage and rehearsal studios."

AGMA and other unions for performers have spent years encouraging and enforcing safe-floor standards in the United States. Early contracts for professional dance companies often included only a line specifying a clean, flat, nonslip surface. Current contracts with companies like New York City Ballet and Houston Ballet contain multiple paragraphs covering everything from inspections and elevated platforms to prohibitions against dancing on concrete, marble, and just plain dirty floors. "Today almost every contract in a union-supported company includes a clause that says if dancers are asked or required to dance on an unsuitable surface, they shouldn't dance or be penalized for refusing to dance," explains Vanasse.

But what makes a floor good or bad? Mark Foley, an architect who specializes in dance and theater facilities, identifies some telltale characteristics in A Handbook of Dance Floors. Structurally, he explains, dance floors need a certain amount of both resilience and resonance. For dancers, that means providing the right amount of flexibility and energy absorption. Floors that lack these qualities can cause dancers to develop shin splints or inflamed ligaments and joints. A too-flexible floor also may create problems, according to Foley. These floors give back the energy they should be absorbing, thereby causing both noise and a rebounding force that can jar or unbalance a dancer. Of course, there are variations in floor preferences. For example, a study of The Royal Ballet found that male dancers prefer a "softer, more compliant floor" for their big jumps, while female dancers want a "stiffer, more secure floor for pointe work."

Foley also identifies some important tactile characteristics of floors, such as texture, temperature, and appearance. Different textures are needed for different styles of dance. High-quality ballroom floors allow for fast movements across a smooth surface and a certain amount of glide. For ballet dancers, a slick floor can lead to slips and falls or clenched muscles from trying to hold on to the floor. Sticky surfaces can slow floors nicely for tap or athletic dance but can impede turns and blow out knees, and at the least, tire muscles more quickly. Surfaces for modern dance must protect barefoot dancers from slipping, abrasions, or having debris imbedded in their feet or toes. Absolutely clean but not waxed is the starting standard for all good floor surfaces.

While most companies today have quality floors at their home theaters and studios, challenges still develop with touring performances, off-site lecture-demos, photo shoots, and other promotional appearances. Dancers must be especially careful when they are scheduled to dance on stages that are due to be resurfaced or are under construction, or on any surface that is not designed for dancing.

New York City-based ballet teacher and dancer Teresa Grazia-Dei, who studied at the School of American Ballet and Juilliard and teaches at Manhattan Ballet, Broadway Dance Center, and other schools in the New York metropolitan area, has worked in both large international theaters and small teaching studios. Her vision of the ideal floor comes largely from training with Andre Eglevsky at his school on Long Island. "Sprung wood floors are the best [for ballet work], especially when they're not waxed or polished at all," she says.

But in other studios around the New York City area, she has seen it all--poorly fitted marley floors with gaping seams, linoleum or asphalt tiles, and even carpeted studio floors. "Linoleum doesn't seem to breathe," she explains. Radio City Music Hall had one of the worst floors she has danced on. "There was no give at all. Everyone found it difficult to dance on and harder to jump from," she recalls of her work with the Radio City Ballet. "It was just the way the theater was built with all the mechanical features underneath." The Music Hall's stage was designed to accommodate enormous sets, turntables and traps, and elevators below the stage.

AGMA's Vanasse notes that stages like Radio City's and those of many opera companies tend to be harder because they must support more elaborate sets. Many roll out a layer of marley-type floor when sets and other production factors permit. In companies with heavy touring schedules that take them to various venues, dancers often make do with a variety of surfaces unless the group has a significantly large budget. Vanasse points out the example of an elaborate portable floor used by Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater for all touting shows. Fully sprung portable floors are expensive, ranging from approximately $30,000 to $100,000 or more, and the costs in time and money of loading them into and out of theaters (which can take four hours or more) add up. These are costs most smaller troupes or schools can't support.

Some European countries have floor standards. For example, Germany sets measurable standards for sports floors that can be used to estimate how suitable a floor is for dance.

Closer to home, outreach performances in schools, hospitals, and community halls have their own challenges: cracks and gouges, poor surfaces, unshaded outdoor platforms. Many companies carry flexible marley-type touting floors to cover damaged surfaces, but these are no substitute for a fully sprung floor.

"Dance companies [or presenters] aren't malicious," says Vanasse. "They don't set out to supply an unsuitable surface for dancers to work on." When problems are called to their attention, he says, they usually address them appropriately.

"You have to take care of yourself," says Grazia-Dei. "You do your technique as well as you can to prevent injuries." As a teacher she's very aware of a suitable floor's benefits for her students. "They get less tired and have a better experience on good floors. Teaching absolutely affects how dancers see this issue.... Only as you become an adult do you realize its ramifications."

Knowing the facts about floors is an important part of a healthy and long career.

DANCERS WHO HAVE ALWAYS been protected from poor conditions must learn to look out for surface hazards and work creatively to avoid possible injury. Use good technique and avoid risky moves in untried venues; ask the choreographer or director to modify the dance if it can't be done safely at that site; and scout the venue in advance so there is time to modify conditions. Know how to go through proper company channels if you have a complaint, and if you belong to a union, know how it can protect you.

Teachers or companies who purchase used floors should contact manufacturers about the estimated life, care, and maintenance of each floor. Reputable dance floor companies can tell you how to maximize the life of your floor, whether your business is aerobics or zapateado.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

A Handbook of Dance Floors by Mark Foley
Available from Dance U.K. for 10.00 [pounds sterling] (plus shipping).
Battersea Arts Centre, Lavender Hill, London SW11 5TN
[phone]; www.danceuk.org; [e-mail]

American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA)
1727 Broadway, New York, NY 10019
212/265-3687, fax [phone]
www.musicalartists.org; [e-mail]

Screen Actors Guild (SAG)
5757 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90036-3600
323/954-1600; fax [phone]; www.sag.org

Actors' Equity Association
165 West 46th St., New York, NY 10036
212/869-8530, fax [phone]
www.actorsequity.org; [e-mail]

Jennifer Gniady is a writer and editor who covers dance, health, and science news from New York City.