Thoughts from the organizational perspective:
Be very, very careful about adding anything to any floor you don't own! A number of dances have lost their venues over issues such as this. Question: is this floor chronically sticky, or newly so? My generic plan of action would go something along these lines:
1. Put up with the sticky floor for the one evening (question for all: What are good dances for a slow floor? I'm assuming heys and whole-set promenades would work better than Petronella/Rory O'More figures). If you're at the hall early enough, you can try mopping particularly awful spots with JUST water. Unless you own the hall or have checked in with the owners in advance, probably best to avoid adding anything to the floor.
2. Immediately contact the owner/rental coordinator for your hall, and let them know about the sticky floor. Try to find out why the floor is not danceable (spills, new finish, humidity...) and find a short-term solution (mopping, adding a tiny bit of dance floor powdered wax, etc). One time, our hall was used the night prior for a party, and sugary drinks had been spilled everywhere! This wasn't the norm and the owners were apologetic. They put a lot of effort into cleaning up, and there haven't been issues since.
3. Make long-term plans for a danceable floor. A local grange coordinated with the contra community on the best way to refinish the floor. We faced a rather pungent month of dancing, but afterwards, the floor was excellent.
4. If the hall is unable or unwilling to work with you regarding the sticky floor, probably best to start looking for a new venue. This certainly isn't a pretty scenario, but the lousy floor will drive down attendance, and adding anything to the floor without permission will certainly put you in trouble with the owners.
Lindsey
From: Perry Shafran via Callers <callers@lists.sharedweight.net>
To: Jack Mitchell <jmitchell.nc@gmail.com>; Mary Collins <nativedae@gmail.com>; "callers@lists.sharedweight.net" <callers@lists.sharedweight.net>
Sent: Monday, July 20, 2015 11:55 AM
Subject: Re: [Callers] sticky floors
I was trying to figure out which was the right one - one is good to make it less sticky and the other makes it more gummy and a lot worse. Could have sworn it was cornmeal. I'm not the one who usually does it but I think that the people who run our dance use the right thing.
Perry
From: Jack Mitchell <jmitchell.nc@gmail.com>
To: Perry Shafran <pshaf@yahoo.com>; Mary Collins <nativedae@gmail.com>; callers@lists.sharedweight.net
Sent: Monday, July 20, 2015 2:52 PM
Subject: Re: [Callers] sticky floors
Not cornmeal - corn starch. Cornmeal would likely scratch the floor!
On Mon, Jul 20, 2015 at 11:43 AM -0700, "Perry Shafran via Callers"
<callers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
Generally cornmeal is used to make the floor less sticky. But be forewarned - don't use too much of it or else you'll have a new problem of the floor being too slippery. Also try to distribute it evenly so you don't have any sticky spots remaining.
Perry
From: Mary Collins via Callers <callers@lists.sharedweight.net>
To: callers@lists.sharedweight.net
Sent: Monday, July 20, 2015 2:36 PM
Subject: [Callers] sticky floors