The spring in their step: dancers on their favorite floors.Dance floors are quiet caretakers. They're a studio's most important feature. And they definitely take a beating! Dancers push, fall, and slide across their surfaces. But even the best floors wear out eventually and might need replacing. Some are suitable for all genres of dance, but the floor that a ballet dancer prefers might not be one a hip hopper adores. We asked dancers to share their take on the partner beneath their feet. And we've compiled a diverse list of options. With so many versatile and attractive floors to choose from, you can outfit any space. A Stagestep Quietstep. A portable or permanent surface floor suitable for jazz, modern, and ballet. Shown over a Springstep subfloor, www.stagestep.com [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] American Harlequin Cascade is a permanent or portable PVC PVC: see polyvinyl chloride. PVC in full polyvinyl chloride Synthetic resin, an organic polymer made by treating vinyl chloride monomers with a peroxide. floor suitable for ballet, jazz, and contemporary dance. It's available in a variety of colors and is antibacterial antibacterial /an·ti·bac·te·ri·al/ (-bak-ter´e-al) destroying or suppressing growth or reproduction of bacteria; also, an agent that does this. an·ti·bac·te·ri·al adj. , www.harlequinfloors.com (Photographed at Steps on Broadway Steps on Broadway is the prestigious and well-renown dance studio on Broadway, NYC,which opened in 1979 by founder and artistic director Carol Paumgarten. There are approximately twelve studios on three floors which offer a variety of classes for all levels. , NYC NYC abbr. New York City NYC New York City ). [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Dance Equipment International #95 premier Dance Floor A semi-permanent or permanent vinyl floor suitable for ballet, tap, jazz, modern, or general use. www.danceequipment.com [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Entertainment Flooring Systems Mezzafloor[TM] A heavy-duty contract quality vinyl designed for permanent and semi-permanent installations. Available in 20 marbled mar·bled adj. 1. Made of or covered with marble: a marbled façade. 2. Having a mix of fat and lean: a well-marbled beef roast. Adj. 1. colors. Suitable for most dance styles. www.flooradvice.com [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Alva's Matlay A reversible, double-sided light-weight PVC vinyl floor. Comes with a non-skid matte finish. Alva's floating dance floor starter kit includes instructions, jig, and foam blocks. Alva's offers an online floating floor cost estimate calculator. 800.403.3447 www.alvas.com [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Rosco Laboratories Adagio a·da·gio adv. & adj. Music In a slow tempo, usually considered to be slower than andante but faster than larghetto. Used chiefly as a direction. n. pl. a·da·gios 1. A heavy-duty, slip vinyl for permanent or semi-permanent installation. Suitable for all genres of dance, www.rosco.com [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] * Samples not shown to scale (Photographed at the Joffrey Ballet School, NYC). STUDIOS PHOTOGRAPHED BY KONRAD FIEDLER American Harlequin Woodspring[TM] Provides a permanent dance floor with a traditional feel. It's a layered, shock-absorbent floor. Shown with a maple hardwood top. www.harlequinfloors.com (Photographed at Steps on Broadway, NYC). [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Gerstung AirBase
Shown with a dance parquet unfinished maple top surface. Suitable for tap, jazz, Irish, and modern dance. www.gerstung.com [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] O'Mara Sprung Floors Birch sprung sub-floor panel Fitted with tongue and groove tongue and groove n. A joint made by fitting a tongue on the edge of a board into a matching groove on another board. seams, comes with optional slip-resistant urethane urethane (yoor´ithān´), n ethyl carbamate used as an anesthetic agent for laboratory animals, formerly used as a hypnotic in humans. top coat and optional masonite base. www.sprungfloors.com [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] En Pointe Enterprises, Ltd. Sprung flooring system Medium density fiberboard fi·ber·board n. A building material composed of wood chips or plant fibers bonded together and compressed into rigid sheets. Noun 1. panels feature Santoprene rubber cushions and a hard laminate maple grain finish. (Shown with a marley surface.) www.en-pointe.com [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] CELESTINA Last seen on MTV's Dancelife and a featured dancer in the new Alvin and the Chipmunks movie: "I dance in sneakers sneakers Noun, pl US, Canad, Austral & NZ canvas shoes with rubber soles sneakers npl (US) → zapatos mpl de lona; zapatillas fpl . Wood gives me resistance and makes it easier for gliding or floating. Marley is great for jazz and ballet but I have to be extra light on my feet while on it. I'll put more energy in my push-off. You have a relationship with the floor. Once you feel the resistance it has, you know how to move. When I'm working on a hard floor, I find ways of cheating to preserve my body parts." SARAH Sarah or Sarai: see Sara. Sarah (flourished early 2nd millennium BC) In the Hebrew scriptures, the wife of Abraham and mother of Isaac. She was childless until age 90. EWING Washington Reflections Dance Company: "In our modern company we need a floor we can slide around on. We need to do our steps and not worry about whether there's enough rosin rosin or colophony, hard, brittle, translucent resin, obtained as a solid residue from crude turpentine. Usually pale yellow or amber, its color may vary from brownish-black to transparent depending on the nature of the source of the crude . Creaky creak·y adj. creak·i·er, creak·i·est 1. Tending to creak. 2. Shaky or infirm, as with age; decrepit: creaky knee joints; a creaky regime. floors emphasize jumps. If you only have floorboards, it's loud, but even in pointe shoes a sprung floor with marley is much quieter. I can dance on it in bare feet, ballet shoes, and pointe shoes." MICHELLE MICHELLE Mid-Infrared Echelle Spectrograph DORRANCE Tapper: "With a raised wood floor there s so much tone. It produces the richest sound and is the most conducive to what tappers do. We all say we prefer oak, but I've started falling in love with maple because it has such a bright sound. But if you have a herd on maple, it's a little overwhelming. There are stages out there that are referred to as instruments because they've been designed for tap dancing, like the one Savion Glover uses. Back in the day, the taps were made out of wood and it was wood on wood, which was a beautiful sound. It's sort of like the difference between a synthetic and a real drum." JEANETTE HANLEY Milwaukee Ballet: "With a slippery floor you can't feel where you are. With a hard floor you are definitely sore the next day--especially if you wore pointe shoes. Sometimes you get to a theater and you're at the mercy of whatever floor is there. I've been in a touring company where they brought their own sprung floor and marley. I love it when marley is thick and brand new and isn't slippery yet from wearing down. The scariest is going back to wood after being on marley. If you're doing a contemporary ballet and your partner is dragging you across the floor, you can get splinters!" KARINE PLANTADIT-BAGEOT Movin' Out, The lion King, and other Broadway musicals: "The first thing I do in the theater is walk around the stage. I put my feet on the floor, first barefoot and then in the shoes I'm going to wear. In Movin' Out the production created a sprung floor. I've been in a theater with a floor that was not giving at all. There was no suspension because there was an elevator to the stage and they couldn't put a sprung floor in. It caused many injuries. When you hit a spot that is slippery you need to know how to fall. Make it part of the performance." |
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