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A little about floors and why we are looking at other venues now instead of Riddings Park Community Centre

Most people think that you can simply go dancing and be okay but in fact, whenever you do any exercise you are taking a risk. We don't want damaged muscles or worse and so responsible dancing teachers will look at all the options to ensure that risks are kept as low as possible.


Until fairly recently I was unaware of what the floor at Riddings Park Community Centre was made of until it badly needed repairing. The over slippy-in-places surface I thought was down to cleaning and more polish in places than others, but was informed by RPCC that the floor needed repairing due to the many cracks and the very slippery surface.

I decided to hold off on the lessons until the floor got repaired as I was having to do the walk throughs on the carpet at the top and on the last night, one of our ladies almost fell over - I have no idea how she saved herself but it could have been very bad, especially now that I know what the surface of the floor is.

A post was placed on facebook asking for recommendations and one reply was from someone who worked for the manufacturuer of the floor they have:


'Your floor is Granwood. Granwood Floors are extremely hard wearing, being made from composite concrete and installed in venues across the world!

Granwax Ltd '


The scare word there for me is in the words composite concrete. I have looked it up( and the original company who has ceased trading according to their website) and it seems that the blocks are made from cement along with lime, plaster and sawdust. They add a coating on top.

The BEST floor for dancers is a sprung floor. The Granwood is okay, in my opinion, for those wearing trainers, but not for those of us wearing boots.

We require a properly sprung floor if possible as even in a short time, dancing on a hard surface can potentially cause injury, pain and damage. On a hard surface your body will absorb the full impact of every jump or repetitive movement. This is turn can cause problems in your feet, ankles, knees, hips, back and also can in turn cause problems beyond that as the constant jarring can contribute to headaches, neck pain, and fatigue of your whole body.


To protect ourselves from this we can do the following:


  • Choose our surface wisely. Wherever possible we will opt for sprung floors or other suitable surfaces.

  • Supportive footwear. Quality is important, choose carefully; look for support and shock absorbency.

  • Listen to our body - pay attention to any aches and pains and don't push through them.


'Floor:  Most teachers and dancers are aware that a concrete floor or poorly sprung wood floor (laid over concrete) is detrimental for the body. '




'Sports floors tend to require a less resilient level of performance than a dance floor because sports users are more concerned with 'ball bounce' characteristics (i.e. how high a ball bounces) and will generally have the protection of cushioned sports shoes. Qualities such as 'ball bounce' measured in the German DIN-Standard are irrelevant to dancers. However, the 'shock absorption' characteristics of a floor are particularly relevant and provide the protective component in floors for dance, where there is little or no cushioning provided by the dancers’ footwear.'

'Shock absorption

A ‘good’ dance floor will have a shock absorption value of at least 53%. This means that the floor will absorb a minimum of 53% of the impact energy of a person landing on the floor, while the remaining 47% is absorbed by the person on landing. A concrete floor has a shock absorption value of 0%, leaving the full 100% shock of impact to jar the person landing.'


So the floor at Riddings is being repaired but still is a concrete composite floor.

I recently hurt my knee dancing within a few weeks of stopping using such a hard surface, although dancing on a hard surface may have contributed to it over time. I am still recovering from it 3 weeks on and if it is affecting me then you can be sure that if you have any problems with your feet, ankles, knees or hips, then it will affect you soon also.

For this main reason, we have been looking into other suitable venues so that we can all carry on dancing without issue.



So please, positive thoughts with this going forwards. Your safety and well being are very important to me, hence my decision in February and my decision more recently since I learned what the surface actually is.



 
 
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