Whew, If I had to cancel all the gigs I had that had sticky, or otherwise less than optimum dance floors, I'd lose half my work! Outdoor gigs on the grass (often sloping or uneven or with holes) or on weddings on rented "dance floors", indoor school (or other) gigs on super sticky polyurethane gym floors sometimes wood on cement, church hall or other "local venue" dances on linoleum/concrete floors, or indoor-outdoor carpet, etc etc etc.. In these cases, (and I do so many of them I don't even think about it much any more,) I just have to adjust the dancing to the venue. true, these dances are mostly family/community type affairs, so they don't last that long, run at a slower pace and the choreography isn't that difficult!
I agree that it's best not to "mess with someone's floor" certainly not without permission!! They are often very proprietorial about their floors, especially schools! The sad thing is a lot of venues think a "shiny floor" is the best floor.. the finish the heck out of them with shiny stuff (polyurethane normally) and this is almost always sticky when it's humid. It also comes off when danced on and covers everything with white power (nice having it stuck in your nose too!).. But unless we OWN the venues, and that is happening in some places, (Guiding Star Grange, Capitol City Grange for two) all we can do is try to educate the venue owners. This is a long process for sure..
Blah blah, what am I saying here?? I guess I am saying, "it ain't that easy" and there isn't one solution that fits all the possible situations. My way of dealing as a dancer is to "take it easy" (less twirls and flourishes maybe) or in extreme cases (and this is bad for sure) to stay away.. and as a programmer, more forgiving choreography..
Finally, there has been a lot written about finish on dance floors, I'm sure someone will point us all to the correct archive again. Stan Fowler did a lot of work on this for Glen Echo and it's written down somewhere.. Others have done work at the above mentioned venues. BUT this doesn't help us at a one night stand or at a venue where everything else might be just fine (acoustics, stage, parking, rent) but where the owners have their own idea about the floor.. I will be interested to see what more people have to say about this!
bill
Date: Mon, 20 Jul 2015 15:28:49 -0400
To: lynzimd@yahoo.com
CC: jmitchell.nc@gmail.com; callers@lists.sharedweight.net
Subject: Re: [Callers] sticky floors
From: callers@lists.sharedweight.net
I don't think you should *ever* “put up with” a super-sticky floor. It damages dancers' knees and ankles. If the floor is too sticky to dance on, and the venue isn't allowing any options for fixing it, cancel the dance.
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