Coming in late ... was helping out at the Meet Me in St. Louis Memorial
Day weekend dance ...
I was a modern dancer once upon a time and encountered a lot of marley.
All of the marley I ran into targeted ballet and toe shoes which
requires a high level of horizontal friction.
Not the end of the world for contra dance, but not ideal for buzz step
et al as has been mentioned.
I had the privilege of rehearsing a few times at an Atlanta Ballet
rehearsal space.
That floor was literally sprung ... with springs ... which made running
on it almost
like running on a diving board! So fully ballet level sprung floors are
not optimum either.
Atlanta contra dance has put down a plywood/strips semi-"sprung" floor
that was a fine floor
(many many years ago). Plywood had a poly finish for protection.
Recently a friend laid a floor for dancing (she contra dances) in an out
building
that had a mix of concrete and joists. In that space ...
strips of wood w/ pool noodle slices for extra cushion
noodle slices stapled onto wood strip
just laid on floor
plywood screwed into wood strips (stabilizing everything)
modern engineered snap in floor laid in on top of plywood et al
I'm tossing out as FYI. Your community center multi-use space won't want to
mess with plywood.
Heitzso
Hi,
From my experience working for New York ballet and modern dance
companies and from doing the folk dancing we talk about here, I'd
offer that the key word is "sprung" and I'd suggest researching
portable and temporary sprung dance floors.
See:
https://www.stagestep.com/subfloor-systems/springstep-v/
Unacceptable: wood or wood-like flooring installed directly on
concrete, without springing. This is as hard, unforgiving, unpleasant
and injurious as concrete.
Sometimes a search for "dance floors" turns up "marley," which is
floor covering, only. It is non-slip vinyl that makes an underlying
sprung floor safe for stage dance.
https://danceequipmentintl.com/marley-dance-floor-guide/
There are soft and hard versions of marley designed for styles of
dance and footware. Again, marley alone doesn't make a concrete or a
non-sprung floor ok, but it can be quickly rolled out onto an "okay"
residential wood beam constructed floor for dancing. An advantage to
this route is that, for low cost, it will protect the surface of, say,
a basketball court enabling a multi-purpose floor.
One might also research the floors for basketball courts which have
the same requirements of being wood, but soft.
As an aside, your challenge reminds me of the floors of large event
arenas, which might have to be changed from a basketball court to an
ice rink to a stadium floor, etc.
Sometimes, also, a hard floor problem can be solved with footwear.
Yours might become a sneaker dance on a concrete floor, just as
sneakers are used for street dance (e.g., hip hop).
Sounds like an exciting project.
Best wishes,
Rob
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President
Innovation Media Corp.
The Innovation Works, Inc.
Tel: (646) 233-1219
Cell: (917) 626-2675
On Fri, May 26, 2023 at 9:28 AM Jim Thaxter via Organizers
<organizers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
Hey Organizers,
My home town, Columbia, MO, is building a welcome/community center
for multiple uses. Our contra group has asked them to consider
something other than smooth concrete for the floor.
The City parks and rec people were initially resistant, but since
a lot of the funding for the building will be coming directly from
the community, they seem to be softening their stance, but not to
the point of approving a hardwood floor. So the architect has done
some research on alternative flooring options that might be
comfortable and safe to dance on, but also have many of the
conveniences of concrete floor for multiple uses and maintenance.
Two products are listed in the attachments below. Unfortunately,
the only known installations are 300-450 miles from us in Indiana
and Kansas.
Have any of you out there in dance land run across either of these
kinds of floorings, or maybe know of other alternatives to
hardwood that would meet low maintenance requirements of the City?
Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.
Jim Thaxter
Columbia, MO
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: *Robbie Price*
Date: Tue, May 9, 2023 at 9:12 AM
Subject: RE: Community building floor
To: Jim Thaxter <jathaxte...@gmail.com>
Dear Jim:
With a pure dance floor out of the question (too much friction for
your purposes and too expensive), I am looking for floor which
gives you the cushion you need and the durability to resist table
and chair scratches, dropped equipment, and food spills. My rep
from Tarkett, one of the largest flooring companies in the U.S.
have a sports/recreation flooring division, Zoche, which may work.
He recommends their Omnisports system “Multi-use” or the Lumaflex
without the wood subfloor. Please find the spec sheets on these
two products attached.
I am also interested in an industrial wood flooring product which
may prove to be a possible solution – end grain wood blocks. It
traditionally is used in industrial applications with 3” – 5”
thick,creosote impregnated wood blocks which take all manner of
abuse. Today they do away with the harmful chemicals and hazardous
materials and use oils and some polyurethanes to finish them. It
could be a beautiful floor and stand up to any abuse if only it is
acceptable to the dance community. Here are websites for your
review: Old Wood LLC. - End Grain Flooring
<https://www.oldwood.us/endgrain> , END GRAIN | Kaswell Flooring
Systems <https://www.kaswell.com/end-grain/>
I need to do so more research on this. Please let me know what you
think. Thank you for any input you can provide.
Cordially,
Robbie
*Robbie Price AIA, LEED AP +*
*573.443.1407*
Architect / Associate
*soa*
*Architecture Interior Design Planning Sustainability*
*P*Please consider the environment before printing this email.
*From:* Jim Thaxter <jathaxte...@gmail.com>
*Sent:* Saturday, May 6, 2023 4:02 PM
*To:* Robbie Price <pr...@soa-inc.com>
*Subject:* Community building floor
Hi Robbie,
Thanks for being willing to consider a floor of something other
than smooth concrete. Keep us up to date on what you’re looking at.
Jim Thaxter
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