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What Floor is Right For You

Absorption of Energy

All movement activity generates energy. Energy directly returned to the body can result in shin splints, back and knee problems, fatigue, strains, and even broken bones. A non-energy absorbent floor or flooring system is dangerous. It can result in injury and law suits. Concrete is non-energy absorbent. Any substance put directly on concrete does not remove you from the concrete unless it contains air (like foam). Basket weave and foam sprung floating subfloors provide shock absorbent characteristics that eliminate the problems associated with hard, non-absorbent floors.

No floor can be the most absorbent and the most resilient at the same time. There is only so much energy and it can only be diffused in varying relationships of absorption and resilience. We call that “feel” and it affects performance. Different surfaces and subfloors have different “feels,” each appropriate for different styles of dance.

Lateral Foot Support

Perhaps the most overlooked attribute of a floor is lateral foot support. Without lateral foot support, you cannot maintain balance. Today, the leading cause of injury is not shin splints but ankle injury, due in part to flooring systems that rely solely on absorbent materials or systems that are too spongy. A term you may come across is point elastic, meaning deflection of the floor at the point of impact. The greater the deflection, the more unstable the floor.

Warning:
Any floor / floor system that you can squish together in your hands (feels soft) can be dangerous due to lack of lateral foot support.

Resilient Energy

In addition to absorbency, energy can be dissipated by resiliency — think of a diving board or trampoline. Energy transfers from the body to a subfloor that deflects and safely returns energy (spring). Wood is the best of the resilient materials.

Non-Slip

Safety is the number one issue with dancers and their teachers when it comes to floors. The first safety concern is the non-slip characteristic of the surface. Ballet dancers need very non-slip surfaces while contemporary dancers in bare feet need smooth giving surfaces so the floor does not cause injury to the bottom of their feet. Tappers need some give, yet also need the assurance under foot of a surface they can slide on. Ballroom and theatre dance require a “fast” (less non-slip) surface. What to do?

In an ideal world, each dance discipline would have its own unique floor surface. Since this is unlikely, Stagestep offers floors that can be “adjusted” to meet the average needs of different dance disciplines. We also have finishes and treatments that can modify a floor surface to be more accommodating to other dance styles.

Safety and Shock Absorbency

The second safety concern dancers have is the ability of the floor to absorb and dissipate energy, and / or safely return energy (resilient energy). If the floor fails to absorb or safely return energy, the body becomes the shock absorber, resulting in fatigue, pain, and injury. A performer’s nemesis is concrete or any other surface that is hard and unyielding.

The guaranteed way to get injured is to work on an unyielding, non-shock absorbing flooring system. Concrete is your enemy. Stagestep features roll out floors and subfloor systems that protect the body from stress fractures, excessive fatigue, and joint stress.

The Best Floors for How You Move

Have questions? Contact us via email or phone. Or check our FAQ pages.

Flooring: Primary Use

Dance Floors with Foam Backing

Stagestep offers three rollout marley-type floors that have heavy-duty wear surfaces and high-density foam underlayment. They can be installed directly over concrete and have very good absorbency, excellent performance, but reduce the level of sound generated. They are rated ideal for residual vibration and are excellent multi-purpose use flooring.

Woodstep Plus and Woodstep Ultra are available in a woodgrain pattern. Dancestep II is available in black or grey. Encore, our hardwood flooring system, also has a built-in floating wood subfloor.

Subfloor: Performance & Characteristics

Floating Wood Subfloors

Stagestep offers a variety of floating wood subfloors (with customized variations) to absorb, dissipate, and provide safe resilient energy return. All floor surfaces without foam backing provide no relief from a hard concrete slab. Check the adjacent flooring charts for relative characteristics and the ideal combination for your movement activity. Springstep IV–Is an easy-to-assemble set of panels, that require no tools to assemble. This floating subfloor assembles in 1/3 the time of a standard sprung floor and can be installed in permanent or semi-permanent studio space.