On Dance Floor (not literally)

Gravity defines every physical action on earth. The shape of our bodies and the form of all our creations are all a direct response to its inescapable power. We know that a body in motion tends to stay in motion until acted upon by a equal or opposite force. For a dancer a step is motion and the opposing force is the floor.

With every step we push up and away from earth only to be pulled back towards it’s center; our descent to earth’s fiery core is stopped by a floor. This persistent relationship makes the lowly floor the most interactive of man’s inventions. For the dancer, a vocational practitioner of this relationship, the floor is the most important tool; dance is a series of gestures in response to gravity. Every dance is, in reality a trio between the body, gravity and the floor.

Watch a dancer walk on a new stage. You’ll see her jumping, tapping, spinning, stroking the floor with her feet. Like a pianist feeling out the nuances of a new instrument the dancer tests a floor’s properties, its possibilities, its limitations, its dangers. Is the floor hard or soft, does it absorb the step or push back. How slippery is the surface? Watch the dancer carefully and you’ll see her taking in all this information, calculating how to fine tune her performance to the given circumstances of the floor.

With so many subtle characteristic at play the construction and maintenance of a dance floor must be taken with the all seriousness of a luthier. Every aspect must be understood as a choice with serious consequences for performers. By mastering the characteristics of a floor and understanding the unique needs of each type of dance you can create an instrument for dancers with all the subtle intention of Stradivarius.