Founded in Philadelphia in 1968, Stagestep is the oldest dance floor manufacturer and supplier in the
USA. At that time, the only rollout, reversible dance floor came from a company in England called
Marley. This revolutionary new flooring took five months to get to customers in the USA. Stagestep first
handled the paperwork for importing, then started to import directly, saving customers four months of
waiting. In the early 1970’s, Stagestep introduced Timestep TM , a multi-purpose heavy duty flooring for
all forms of dance, Quietstep TM for ballet, and Dancestep TM , a foamed backed floor that did not require a
floating subfloor. Stagestep opened its warehouse in the late 1970’s and stocked flooring for immediate
delivery. Over the years maintenance and installation products were introduced and Stagestep
developed a do-it-yourself line of floating wood subfloors, hardwood flooring with built-in floating
subfloors and expanded its’ line of flooring to include a wood-look collection and various grades of
Marley.
Stagestep invented SlipNoMor TM a water-soluble non-slip treatment, FloorShield TM II, the first wood and
vinyl floor finish designed for dance, and Springstep TM IV, a transportable floating wood subfloor that
assembles without screws or hardware.
Randy Swartz, founder and President of Stagestep, came to dance as executive and artistic director of
the Walnut Street Theatre in 1969, an early Stagestep client. At the theatre he created Dance
Celebration (later called NextMove Dance), a world class dance series. In 1983 the series moved to the
Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Pennsylvania where Mr. Swartz continued
to serve as Artistic Director until the pandemic closed all the theatres in 2020.
In 1974, Mr. Swartz joined a group of dance professionals to spearhead the organization and creation of
the International Ballet Competition in Jackson, Mississippi. Soon to follow was the American Ballet
Competition which selected and supported American dancers participating in international competitions
in Varna, Helsinki, Moscow, St. Petersburg and Osaka. He served as the American judge at three of
these competitions.
It is this direct connection with dance that has informed Stagestep’s understand of the needs of the
dancer and the dance community and to continue to introduce innovative solutions that identifies and
addresses their concerns.
Today, Stagestep is a full service dance floor company providing products, installation and financing
options for the studio, stage, and home.
