I think most us now know that we should be dancing on a sprung floor, but what is a sprung floor? How does it affect our body when we dance and why should we ensure that we minimise time spent working on hard surfaces? Deb Crookshanks offers us some clarification.

What is a wood sprung floor?
A sprung floor is one that absorbs shock, enhancing performance, and greatly reducing injuries. There are different types of sprung floors – traditional wood basket weave, wood weave on high density neoprene pads, or foam rubber with a good wood or other elastic layer on top. Early wood sprung floors (1920s) had actual springs!
These floors are designed to be flexible enough to absorb energy from a dancer’s impact but provide the right amount of resilience for dance movements. This resilience is called ‘energy return’ meaning a small portion of the energy or shock the floor absorbs from landings is given back to the dancer, providing a little extra spring when jumping again eg a series of sautés or jetés. This reduces the strain on feet & ankles, lower limbs and the dancer’s body generally.

How can a dancer reduce the stress on the body when performing or working on a hard surface?
If dancers must take class/rehearsal/performance on a hard surface excessive or repetitive jumping should be avoided. If choreography requires jumps these can be marked through or practiced at a lower intensity initially with the big leaps limited to a few per day or only practiced 3-4 times at the time of the final rehearsal. Remember when touring or performing in different spaces the ideal sprung floor is not always available and teachers, choreographers, & dancers must allow for this. If you are setting up a studio and have only a concrete or similar hard floor available, various floor companies provide portable sprung floors which can be laid over the top of the existing flooring.

What are some common injuries sustained from dancing on hard surfaces?
Common injuries which result from dancing on hard surfaces include tendonitis, shin splints, knee pain, ankle sprain and even low back pain, neck muscle tension and headaches.

How can you ascertain if the floor is sprung?
Sprung floors have a softer feel when dancing than concrete or vinyl surfaces laid over a concrete slab. A dancer can usually tell after a few small jumps or petite jetés whether a floor is sprung. The sprung floor should ‘give’ a little however it should not be too soft which is tiring, as the overly soft floor absorbs the dancer’s energy but doesn’t return energy back to the dancer resulting in fatigue.

What are the long term problems when dancing on a hard floor?
Long term side effects of working on a hard surface include early degenerative changes in the joints of the foot & ankle and ongoing shin and knee pain. There may also be some changes in the joints of the low back as the impact from dancing must be absorbed somewhere along the kinetic chain.

Until the next dance class – look after you.

Debra