Types of Dance Flooring

Different types of flooring are used in dance studios across the nation, depending on the genre of dance being performed. While the structure of dance floors vary, all dance flooring has been designed with the purpose of lessening damage to a dancer’s body by being slip-resistant as well as shock-absorbent.

• Tap Dance – Tap is a form of dance named for the sound the dancer’s shoes make when they hit the floor. Hard-wood flooring is the most popular for jazz dance, as it delivers the necessary sound when dancers shoes tap and scrape the surface. The best hard-woods include maple and oak, and will withstand the stress of tap dance better than a softer wood like pine. These woods are also less likely to splinter, and require less upkeep than softer wood flooring.

• Ballet –  Ballet dates back to the Italian Renaissance and is known for its highly technical French vocabulary of moves. Sprung floors are common to ballet studios because of their shock-absorbing design. Traditional sprung floors are made by bending woven wooden battens to create an absorbent sub-floor. Modern sprung floors are supported by foam or rubber sub-floors and are found in dance studios across the country. Sprung floors are sometimes called “floating floors” due to their structure, which is composed of a top layer, or performance surface, and a sub-floor.

• Modern Dance –  Modern dance is rooted in the United States and Germany, and was a response to the specified movements that ballet taught. Marley is the most popularly used flooring for modern dance.  This type of flooring is made of durable, slip-resistant vinyl that is easily transferrable. Marley is ideal for stage use, and can be installed permanently, but is more commonly installed as semi-permanent flooring and removed after a performance. This flooring is also very popular amongst break dancers, due to it’s portability. Marley flooring is composed of many layers, including a UV-protective wear layer (UV rays rapidly degrade vinyl surfaces), a layer of vinyl that supports the wear layer, a woven fiber interlayer that provides elasticity, and a base layer of foamed vinyl for padding.

• Jazz Dance – The jazz art form is a combination of moves from African American vernacular dance and traditional Caribbean dance. Jazz dance became very popular in the 1950s and is still a popular form of dance today. Arabesque floors are common to jazz, but can be used for a variety of other dances as well. Due to the nature of its homogenous (uniform structure and composition throughout) vinyl design, this type of flooring is best for permanent installations. Arabesque flooring is best for jazz because of its ability to disguise scuff marks created by shoes, as well as its vinyl slip-resistant qualities that help prevent slips during complex moves.

The many forms of dance require many forms of performance flooring. Just as there are various moves in different genres of dance, there are different types of flooring for each respective genre of dance.

This post is brought to you by Napoli School of Music and Dance.