Sprung Floor

[airchild]

Is sprung floor is must for ballet classes of all levels?

 

At my ballet school, the floor is made with a concrete base covered with linoleum-type material. When I asked the administration about it, he said: "Sprung floor is not necessary because our classes are for amateurs. There are not so many high jumps involved."

 

However, as far as I know, some of the classes are advanced levels for people aspiring to pursue a dancing career. There are also pointe classes. Even for lower level classes like the ones I attend, we do a fair amount of sautés and jétés. Sometimes after a rigorous class, I would feel pain in my legs and feet (not the type of regular soreness though). I suspect this has something to do with the feet and legs absorbing all of the impacts when jumping.

 

I feel distressed because the teachers are really good but the studio doesn't have the right kind of floor. It is very hard to find the right kind of combinations - good teachers, proper studio, good location and time - for adult students in my city. Sigh

[Victoria Leigh]

Airchild, a sprung floor is definitely essential for ballet, at ANY level. I really think you need to search for a better studio. It's too bad about the teachers, but, they really should not be teaching in a space like that.

[vrsfanatic]

Sprung floors in the US were not as common even ten yeas ago as they are today. They are a very good idea in terms of health. Have you tried to speak with the Director of your school regarding your concerns?

[airchild]

Thanks, Ms Leigh and vrsfanatic, for your replies! Now I know how important it is to have sprung floor for ballet.

 

Vrsfanatic, the administrator I spoke to at the school is the owner. So if he holds this misleading view then there is nothing else to do. This school is immensely popular because the principle (the owner's wife) is a very known teacher and one of the first ballerinas in China. She teaches well and attracts a lot of students. Due to economic or whatever reasons they have not changed their studio's construction for more than 20 years.

 

For some reasons, the more modern studios in my city (hong kong) don't usually have adult classes. There are, of course, some adult classes with good studios, except they are either too far away and/or have bad timing (e.g. end at after 10pm on a week day).

 

I have noticed that some studios for rent or the studio in my housing complex have the wrong type of floors, too, even though they are pretty new studios. It just seems that those who construct the studios have absolutely no idea about what is safe for dancers. The level of professionalism is very low.

Edited March 15, 2008 by Redbookish

[Guest ingve]

Hi airchild,

there are almost always an economic reason for avoiding to modernise a studio, and it seems to be the same everywhere. The more money they make, the less they want to invest.

 

Even if you do not feel it if you can get permanent physichal problems if you train too long on an inproper floor.

 

If I am not wrongly informed, in the European Union you will now have to lay out a proper floor to be allowed to call your school a ballet school. The same rules apply for fitness studios etc.

[diane]

Ingve, really?? That would be great!!

Would that go for already existing ballet schools? Or just the "state-run" ones? Or only the newer ones??

I have to teach on floors which are less-than-optimal, and it is hard on the students who dance more than once a week there!

We have put down foam underneath the marley, but it is of course not the same as a properly "sprung" floor. -sigh-

Economic reasons are tops.

Where I teach, the owners barely make ends meet so far... and there is no chance of modernising yet. BUT, if it is LAW, then they will have to do so, even if it means taking out a loan, right?

 

-d-

[Mel Johnson]

The sprung-floor problem is one reason for ballet teachers out to start their own schools to look into historic preservation as an avenue to getting the right kind if building. Adaptively re-using older structures where the girders and floor joists are wood instead of steel and concrete is a great way to get the correct flooring for a studio.

[Guest ingve]

Diane, I do not know the laws of older schools. I just know from a couple opening a school in Austria. And to be able to registrate this as an official registrated ballet school they had to have a sprung floor. And they told me this was according to EU law.

 

That they then put a super slippery parket floor on top of that, which made it impossible to do propper training in there anyway. It seems that studio owners have the same tendence all over the world.

[airchild]

It's encouraging to hear about the new legal requirements in the EU. Sometimes the EC over-legislates to such a point that it stifles growth. However, when it comes to sprung floor, they have done a great job Kudos!

 

I'm actively seeking new studios with sprung floors now. Yesterday I went to my usual class on "concrete" floor and to my chagrin, had my other foot hurt as well. My calf muscles are simply absorbing most of the shock that is supposed to travel through the feet to the floor, so they are very tense. Because my bunion already hurts, the toes are not totally spread out when I land, and this creates unnecessary tension in my legs. Sigh

 

My teacher is very attentive about my pain and told me to skip certain jumps that would make the pain worse. However, when I told her how I felt about the floor, she said that unfortunately this is quite common in Hong Kong and that she grew up dancing on hard floors until she entered dance college. She said there are ways in which the feet could transfer some of the shock back to the floor, even if it is a hard floor - but I have no clue exactly how! It is such a pity that if I leave that school, I would be leaving some of the best teachers in my city! But now, my no. 1 concern is safety, as I want to enjoy ballet for as long as I could. So, onto my next studio search (the 11th studio I will have visited so far)!

 

By the way, I just found out that sprung floor has existed since the 19th century!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprung_floor

Edited March 18, 2008 by airchild

[Clara 76]

I'll be interested to hear from Mel on this subject as Wikipedia is written by anyone who feels like adding information whether it's correct or not. Major Mel will know if that's a fact or not.

[ineluctability]

Are sprung floors normally used for tap?

 

Explanation: The studio I started out with built brand new studios - one with sprung flooring - one with marley. The sprung floor studio is used by the tap students and they have beat the hell out of that thing. It bows in areas, some places are hard as rocks, some are sinking. All of it is pitted and gouged and uneven.

 

Anyway - it made for a terrible ballet surface in my opinion (oh, there is always a huge mess of rosin along an entire wall - apparently leftover from the pointe classes). But, I am no longer at that studio.

[dancesmith]

Some tap dancers wouldn't tap on anything but a sprung floor. Protecting their joints is just as important to them as to ballet dancers.

 

The conditions of the floor you describe are almost certainly attributable more to poor quality than the tap dancers. It sounds like the underfloor was totally inadequate and possible the floor itself was not of good hardwood. While tap may be harder on a floor than ballet, I think you should look at the installers of the floor before blaming the tap dancers too much.

[Mel Johnson]

I'll be interested to hear from Mel on this subject as Wikipedia is written by anyone who feels like adding information whether it's correct or not. Major Mel will know if that's a fact or not.

 

Sure! The Drottningsholm Slottsteater, which dates from 1766, is still in operation, with the original stage machinery, trapdoors and everything! And even the trapdoors are sprung!

[airchild]

I'll be interested to hear from Mel on this subject as Wikipedia is written by anyone who feels like adding information whether it's correct or not. Major Mel will know if that's a fact or not.

 

Sure! The Drottningsholm Slottsteater, which dates from 1766, is still in operation, with the original stage machinery, trapdoors and everything! And even the trapdoors are sprung!

 

Hey Mel, thanks for this interesting piece of information. I visited Drottningholm a couple of years ago when I was living in Sweden. Unfortunately the theatre was closed at that time so I couldn't witness the marvelous stage construction!

[Mel Johnson]

Restoration on that place must be a real bear! All I have to take care of is a middle-class 18th-century historic house, and finding replacement parts for that (the best policy is to "replace in kind") when a structural piece goes bad. You can find 250-year-old woods to work, but you gotta pay! I'm not surprised the place has to close from time to time, just for maintenance!