Steve Green of Harlequin Floors explores the critical role dance floors play in dancers’ safety and performance, highlighting the research behind creating optimal environments for longevity that support users.

Professional dancers can spend hours working in a dance studio, it is their place of work and should offer a safe environment that is fit for purpose. The floor is a dancer’s most important work tool; not only as a canvas for their creativity, but also as protection against slips, falls and longer-term stress injuries.

Experienced dancers can judge a good floor instinctively as to whether or not it feels right. And if it feels right they can effectively forget about the floor and concentrate on putting all their focus and concentration into the artistic performance. That confidence comes from reassurance they are not going to slip and fall, that lifts can be performed safely and on landing from jumps, the response of the floor consistently returns the right amount of energy absorption. Quantifying this subjective rating of a floor into a series of repeatable tests is no simple task. Anyone specifying floors for dance should remember that dancers may not be the commissioning clients, but they are the end users. Major dance companies understand this, which is why it is not uncommon to ask their dancers to ‘test’ floors before the final choice is made.

There is a common misconception that a well-designed sports floor will suit the needs of dancers.

There are some critical factors that distinguish the requirements of dance from those of sports played on a sports floor. Many sports require a firm floor which allows balls to bounce predictably. By contrast, dancers need more absorption from the floor to protect them on landing from jumps. A good dance floor instils confidence in dancers to give full expression to their creativity, safe in the knowledge the dance floor will offer a consistent response.

Unlike sportsmen who wear increasingly high-tech air-cushioned shoes to give grip and protect against impact injuries, the modest ballet shoe has barely changed in design since the mid-18th century. Made from soft leather, canvas or satin, the ballet shoe is very flexible, has a thin sole, and offers little protection for the wearer.

But not all dance floors are the same, there are recognised international standards for general types of floor, but not yet for dance floors. Although it is customary to specify compliance with a published and recognised standard, using general flooring or sports floor standards will not ensure the right floor is installed. Only a floor developed specifically for dance will do. There may be a temptation to specify floors for aesthetic or budget reasons, or to specify sports floors in the mistaken belief they will be suitable for dance but there have been some high-profile examples where floors have had to be replaced by a dance company after the building is complete, and dancers have their first experience of dancing on the floors.

Correlating the subjective evaluation of floors as judged by dancers with measurement criteria has prompted a number of avenues for research, particularly in the field of biomechanics.

One leading researcher is Dr Boni Rietveld, a retired orthopaedic surgeon at the Centre for Medicine, Dance and Music in The Hague, Netherlands and past president of the International Association for Dance Medicine and Science. Rietveld observed: “There is a distinction to make between injuries caused by the floor and those caused accidentally. As far as the former are concerned, it is evident that there is a cause and effect relationship between dancers’ injuries and the floor on which they perform.

“Generally, dancers should refuse to perform on unsuitable floors and demand the right to have a touring floor that has the same absorbent characteristics as the floor installed in their rehearsal studio. In this way, we would certainly be able to prolong the career of dancers, who, at the moment, stop at 35 years of age, because their bodies no longer work properly, or because of injury.

“In my opinion, a dance floor should be neither too supple nor too soft. A hard floor has the effect of causing serious return shock waves and can bring about injuries or premature wear in the cartilage. A soft floor causes the muscles, and therefore the tendons, to work harder. Additionally, a floor that is too soft can be dangerous for dancers because of the effect of surprise.”

Another researcher is dance scientist and biomechanics expert Dr Luke Hopper with his pioneering research investigating the effects of dance floors on dancer performance and injury.

Luke explained: “Dance floors are an integral part of the dance environment, yet little information is available for the dance community that concerns how dance floors may affect dancer performance and injury. For the dedicated dancer striving to improve, injury can sadly be an all too common occurrence.

By gaining knowledge around the relationship between dance floors and dancer performance and injury, the dance environment can be optimised in order to give dancers the best opportunities in their training.

It is common to hear dancers describe a floor with words like ‘sprung’, ‘hard’ or ‘stiff.’ But what aspects of the floors are the dancers referring to when they make these statements? And do these elements of the floors really affect performance? These are vital research questions for dance research in the interests of dancer health.”

Luke Hopper’s research reported that: “injury occurrence is all too common in dance. Dancers will always push their bodies to the limit to get the most out of their training. It is therefore very important that safe dance environments are created by reducing any unnecessary injury risks.”

This research found that dancers can be required to perform on substandard floors which were shown to affect ankle joint stress during dance movements. Dancers also demonstrated the distinct ability to sense changes in dance floor properties.

Dance institutions are now able to use this information and work with dancers in creating dance environments with the aims of helping dancers to dance better, stronger and for longer. The flooring manufacturer has a key role to play in ensuring dancers have a safe environment in which to rehearse and perform.

Steve Green is group marketing director at Harlequin Floors