Choosing the Right Type of Dance Floor

When you’re looking for the ideal new dance floor you must consider how it will be used in your own specific set up. For example a small private dance class studio that teaches all types of dance will need a different type of flooring than a professional ballet school. 

Schools and colleges tend to have a multi-use space, such as a gym or drama room.  Therefore a roll-out and portable flooring such as Duo Reversible might be the best choice. A private dance studio will likely be used just for dancing and can perhaps have a more permanent flooring installed such as Uni Multi

Dance creates a lot of moving energy! If this energy is directly returned to the body it can cause injury including shin splints or knee problems. The wrong floor can also cause fatigue. Concrete is not energy absorbent and a floor surface laid directly on concrete needs to have cushioning of some type to dissipate this energy.  The best way to do this is via a specialist floor such as our fully sprung wood dance floors but even our super competitively priced Smart Flex option might be out of reach of many dance studios and is not practical in areas that are only occasionally used for this type of activity.  

Where a sprung floor has been ruled out it is best to consider a dance surface that has a layer of cushioning in built into the floor and this is where vinyl dance floor surfaces are ideal.  However, it is important that the surface is not too soft as lateral foot support needs to be maintained – our softest flooring is Multi Dance and this has been specifically designed as a general surface for all dance types except percussive such as tap.


Dance Style


Uni Multi

Duo Reversible


Multi Dance


Performa


Smart Flex


Ballet Dance


Ideal


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Modern/Contemporary
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Tap Dance


NoIdealNoIdealWith Duo

Street/Trainer


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Irish


NoIdealNoIdealWith Duo

Slip Resistance and Non-Slip

Each of our floors has had the slip characteristic considered.  There is no such thing as a non slip floor, you can slip on any floor, it is the anti slip properties that are key.  Dance types vary for different slip on the surface - Ballet dancers need more resistance to slip than a street dancer or a contemporary dancer in bare feet. Tap dancers need some slip but also need to be sure of how much they will slide and with tap this can vary from performer to performer!