Preparing your home studio for safe dance
Welcome to dancing at home — with its daily distractions, endless child supervision, traffic, noise, limited space and likely no ballet barre or mirror. You are probably also confronted with carpet, hardwood on cement or tile on which to dance.
Zooming your dance class can be a dangerous proposition. The inappropriate floors available in your home, apartment, basement or garage can facilitate both injury and fatigue. They will certainly not help to develop technique or improve performance. There is hardly a floor in your home space that isn’t too hard or too slippery. It is simply not a dance studio.
However, there are a number of options that will turn a small area in your home into a temporary dance space and provide your dancer with all the safety benefits of a professional dance studio. It is not a luxury to protect their well-being.
For the dancer who has a relatively small space to work with and needs to quickly install and remove their dance floor, the best option is Dancestep Plus. It is a dual density foamed back flooring with a Marley dance surface. It is available with free shipping in 6.56′ widths by 4’, 8’, 10’, 15’ and 20’. It comes in black or gray and is ideal for all dance styles except tap (because of sound reduction). The dual foam backing acts like a floating subfloor, keeping the dancer safe from impact injury. Multiple pieces can create virtually any size home studio floor. The non-slip surface works especially well for ballet.
A tap, turning or ballet board is a very portable and easy-to-use at-home option. All boards feature a specialized floor surface over a subfloor, sitting on 3/4’’ cross link cell foam. In other words, it’s a mini floating subfloor system.
For those interested in a real wood option, we have Encore Home, an easy-to-assemble click and lock system requiring no tools. It features a real built-in floating wood subfloor and is available in prefinished oak or maple flooring – ideal for tap and ballroom. Encore also works well for jazz and contemporary.
If you happen to have space you can commit to your home studio, consider Springstep IV, our professional, floating prefabricated subfloor. For smaller spaces, no tools are necessary to assemble it; for larger spaces, a circular saw will be needed to stagger the seams and fit the room. Top the subfloor surface with the dance floor that is appropriate for how you dance.
All of your dance floor options are portable or transportable. Size is determined by your need and your budget. There are many possible ways to go, and a Stagestep rep would be happy to review your options.
Your safety is of paramount importance, be it in the studio, on stage or in your home. More information is available online at www.stagestep.com or by calling 800-523-0960.
By Randy Swartz of Stagestep.
The post Preparing your home studio for safe dance appeared first on Dance Informa Magazine.
Welcome to dancing at home — with its daily distractions, endless child supervision, traffic, noise, limited space and likely no ballet barre or mirror. You are probably also confronted with carpet, hardwood on cement or tile on which to dance. Zooming your dance class can be a dangerous proposition. The inappropriate floors available in your home, apartment,…