Portable dance floors, also known as Marley floors, are used by touring dance and theatre companies and dance schools to provide a smooth, clean surface for dance performance
Rolls of tough, durable vinyl material, usually five feet wide, are laid out on stage floors and then seamed with tape to provide a “foot friendly” performance surface.
Vinyl dance floor sections can be seamed with either vinyl tape or cloth tape, depending on the preference of the dancers.
Cloth tape (gaffers tape) has texture and creates a line on the floor somewhat like lines on a parking lot, that dancers can feel with their feet.
Vinyl tape is smooth, like the surface of the vinyl floor, and creates the sense of a continuous surface-something normally preferred by dancers wearing ballet slippers.
Try these tips when installing vinyl dance floors:
1. Make sure that the floor is warm (minimum of 72 degrees F) before unrolling it
2. Allow for a gap of no more than 1/16″ between floor sections
3. Make sure that the floor is clean and dry before taping
4. Do not stretch vinyl tape when applying. It has “memory” and will attempt to return to its original length
5. Make sure that the area beneath the vinyl floor is clean before unrolling the floor sections
6. Use padding under the legs of furniture or set pieces when placing them on vinyl dance flooring