DanceFlurry Organization

by Don Bell (DanceFlurry Organization Vice-President), Ian Hamelin (Flurry Festival Technical Director), Rich Pisarri (DanceFlurry Organization Treasurer)

Dancers love the Flurry Festival for a hundred different reasons. But in addition to accolades, each year the festival organizers receive suggestions for improvements too. On the Flurry evaluation forms, people often suggest we improve the floors in the larger halls. Doing this would not only enhance the quality of the dance experience, but also reduce the risk of injury to dancers’ feet, knees, hips and backs.

Some of the characteristics of a good dance floor are:

• appropriate traction - too much can cause knees to twist when turning, too little can result in falls;
• just the right amount of give – too hard causes repetitive strain injuries, too soft or springy is tiring;
• a cushiony surface - absorbs the energy of falls and reduces injuries;
• an even plane - a level surface with minimal variations across the entire floor eliminates “clumping” of the dancers and also reduces risk of falls.

Sprung wood floors provide the ideal base for dancing of all kinds, including traditional dancing. One of the best floors at the Flurry is the wooden floor in the Saratoga Music Hall (located in City Hall), which has made this site a favored venue. Since moving to Saratoga Springs, we have rented unsprung wood floor panels to cover the carpeted venues in the Saratoga Hilton hotel and now the expanded Saratoga City Center complex. This unsprung flooring placed on top of the springy carpet imparts a sturdy but resilient feeling – good for a long weekend of dancing.  However, the festival directors have determined that this type of flooring would not work well on top of the vinyl-covered concrete floors in the larger halls of the City Center. The flooring would not significantly increase dancer comfort and could potentially harm the surface of the vinyl floor underneath. So, despite their efforts, the festival directors have remained in a quandary about how to improve these dance floors.  

At Pinewoods Dance Camp in August 2010, Don Bell met Warren Argo. Warren was one of the seven founding members of the Northwest FolkFloor Coalition in Seattle, which raised money for the Roadhouse portable dance floor that has been used for each NorthWest Folklife Festival since 1987.  The Roadhouse floor is a simple three layer, sandwich-like design, consisting of 4 x 8 foot Masonite sheets (a wood-based fiberboard with a smooth surface) over two layers of Homasote (a fiber wall board made from recycled paper, similar in composition to papier-mâché). Once assembled, the whole surface is taped together and waxed. The Homasote is not very resilient but absorbs some shock from impact, mostly because of the air trapped between the layers; and at least, it is more forgiving than concrete.

Don shared what he had learned at dance camp with Rich Pisarri and Ian Hamelin and introduced them to Andrew Pate, who has designed two professional and commercially successful portable dance floor systems - the kiwiFLOOR and the Rosco SubFloor. Inspired by the example of NorthWest Folklife Festival’s dance floor, Rich started investigating the feasibility of acquiring portable dance flooring to cover some of the concrete dance spaces in the City Center.  Our charge to Andrew was to improve on the design of the Northwest Folklife floor, creating a portable dance floor that would be light, durable, resilient, affordable, and easy to install. Plus, the floor was to be designed to go on top of carpet, tile, or cement floors.

Andrew developed a prototype dance floor panel made of Fibrex® (a plastic and wood composite material). Under the Fibrex panels was a layer of polyethylene-based foam. Four panels of this prototype floor were assembled together in a demo space at the 2011 Flurry. Dancers tried out the floor and gave us some feedback. After the 2011 Flurry, we came to the conclusion that the first "prototype" was not resilient enough for our purposes. 

Andrew designed a second prototype portable dance floor that improved on the original design by adapting the Rosco foam pad design underneath and using sturdier Baltic Birch plywood for the flooring surface. These adaptations have significantly increased the springiness and durability of the floor, providing a product that will last for years.  At the 2012 Festival, we plan to demo this new product and seek feedback from festival patrons.

If Andrew’s new dance floor prototype elicits positive feedback from dancers and meets our quality standards, the Flurry Floor Committee will recommend that the DanceFlurry Organization forge ahead with “The Great DanceFlurry Floor Project”.  The DFO Board would then take on the mission of raising funds to purchase, store and maintain dance floor panels. Beyond fundraising, there are many logistical challenges, including: developing an efficient plan to install and de-install the floor panels; recruiting and training a dance floor crew for installation and de-installation; transporting panels to/from venues; locating a safe storage space; and providing for yearly maintenance. Fortunately, Ian (the Festival’s Technical Director) has taken on the challenge of working with the stalwart and committed volunteer festival committee to address these logistical issues.

Can the DanceFlurry community step up to this new challenge of providing better quality dance floors? Given the Flurry’s successful history in overcoming other significant obstacles, we feel confident that the answer is “yes”! In 1994, during a cold spell just two-and-a-half weeks before the Flurry, water pipes burst in the gymnasium floor of the Farnsworth Middle School – the former Festival site. The floor was ruined, and Flurry organizers had to scramble to find an alternative venue. Amazingly, they pulled together a successful festival by using several venues in the city of Saratoga Springs. Then in 2007 a big storm knocked out power for the entire festival weekend, leaving our small organization with financial losses of staggering proportions. Our performers, dancers, dance organizers, the local community, and more-distant Festival goers responded with great generosity, resulting in a stronger-than-ever Festival. Thus, when it comes to responding to the current challenge of financing and managing the ‘Great DanceFlurry Floor Project’, we’re convinced the DanceFlurry community can do it!

Photo - second prototype dance floor - showing five-foot-square panel with ½-inch foam pads on perimeter connecting boards and center ‘sleeper’ boards. Pads provide ‘springiness’ and physical isolation from the floor. The foam pads should alleviate any concern the City Center has about damage to their vinyl floor. If you are interested in contributing or volunteering for the Great DanceFlurry Floor Project,

contact Don Bell, donbell@nycap.rr.com, 518-273-5172.