dancefloor advice

[hazypond]

next question for a friend who has a busy dance-school. yellow tongue floor sheeting gets a hiding on a regular basis and the polyurethane/ clearcoats applied (3 times last year) seem to become slippery (ie dangerous) after a few weeks thus he sands and recoats! any products / advice would be appreciated! ps my suggestion of sand/ grit as in non slip paving paint additive was not conducive to healthy leotard bottoms or soft leather jazz shoes . cheers thanx in advance

[Sturdee]

Tell him to try waxing the floor and brushing the soles of the dance shoes as well.

The only dance floors I've danced on that were slippery were those that weren't waxed properly.


Peter.

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

My ex- used to help out in an old play-house, so I was often in the back-wings doing blokey things. They applied different grades of floor waxes depending on the type of performance they put on: really high grip for acrobatics and progressively slipperier(ierier? :confused: ) waxes for normal panto thru to various dance routines, etc. I believe they even waxed different parts of the floors with different grades for some productions. (I've often wondered whether the phrase "break a leg" has something to do with stepping somewhere the choreography says they shouldn't... and finding a high-slip bit?)

I've no idea what the floor was originally finished with, but I imagine there'll be something suitable for over the top of polyU.

There's a down-side, of couirse: it'd need maintenance in the form of regular buffing & re-application.

[johnc]

At the local dance (30+ years ago) they used to throw hand fulls of dry washing machine soap powder around for grip. Have no idea how effective it was or why they started using it.

John.

[Robert34]

next question for a friend who has a busy dance-school. yellow tongue floor sheeting gets a hiding on a regular basis and the polyurethane/ clearcoats applied (3 times last year) seem to become slippery (ie dangerous) after a few weeks thus he sands and recoats! any products / advice would be appreciated! ps my suggestion of sand/ grit as in non slip paving paint additive was not conducive to healthy leotard bottoms or soft leather jazz shoes . cheers thanx in advance

hazypond

Have a look at this web site it may give your friend a few ideas on solving this problem.

http://www.scottishdance.net/scd/tips/General.html

Robert34

[Shaty40]

I would have thought that the owner of a dance school,should know all about the care of the dance floor!

Tim

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

I would have thought that the owner of a dance school,should know all about the care of the dance floor!

Why? The owners of most house floors have no idea how to look after them...

[Wood Butcher]

When I used to do theatre lighting and sound work part-time one of the tricks we used to 'cure' a slippery floor was to mop the flor with coke. For an extra stick add a kilo or two of sugar.

[RETIRED]

Buy resin for the soles of the shoes.

[BrisBen]

tell them to start break-dancing classes

throw a bit of wax around at the beginning of the class and all that spinning will have it buffed and polished in no time

saves on the cost of maintenance and keeps "those young people" off the streets

[ozwinner]

next question for a friend who has a busy dance-school. yellow tongue floor sheeting gets a hiding on a regular basis and the polyurethane/ clearcoats applied (3 times last year)

I think Yellow Tongue is only supposed to be sanded a max of twice before it become too thin.

Al :eek:

[Sturdee]

throw a bit of wax around at the beginning of the class

That's what I meant with waxing the floor which unlike furniture does not get buffed or polished out. If it gets buffed or polished it again becomes smooth and slippery.


At the dance halls I frequent the wax is thrown around before each session and the many feet spread it around but this does not polish it. Ofcourse before dancing you must brush the soles clean of the wax build up with a wire brush.

Peter.

[soundman]

What you do to a dance floor depends a great deal on what style of dance you are talking about.

Almost wothout exception ballrooms are waxed with parifin wax. Traditionaly this was applied using a block of wax and a kitchen grater. Granulated wax is getting more popular these days. A friend of mine uses liquid ( emulsified ) wax applied with a preasure sprayer & it seems to work well.
The new vogue speed freeks ( they like the floor slipery ) still use pops or kero & saw dust particularly in the country halls.

Contempory dance or ballet is a different kettle of fish all together.
Tap people would probably be fine with wax.
Any of the soft shoe disciplines like ballet or jazz done in soft shoes or bare foot you have to be very carefull. Failure to provide the appropriate surface characteristic can result in very nasty injuries.
Most of the serious schools use purpose made plastic dance floor such as tarket or rosco dance floor for the soft shoe disciplines.

Any of the hard shoe disciplines will give the floor a hiding particularly where the ladies wear heels.
Almost without exception heel protectors ( flares ) must be worn by ladies in ballroom competiton these days to protect the floor.

cheers

[Sturdee]

The new vogue speed freaks ( they like the floor slippery ) still use pops or kero & saw dust particularly in the country halls.

"The new vogue speed freaks", BTW I love your description of us , don't like slippery dance floors but use normal dance floors that are waxed by the scattering of granulated wax.


Maybe in Queensland country halls :eek: they use pops or kero & saw dust, but I haven't seen any of that around here.


Peter.

[soundman]

So Sturdee you're a member of arm wavers annonimous

Mate some of the country arm wavers like the floor so fast you can barly stand.

A guaranteed recipie for a sore a#%e is waxy shoes and kero on the floor.