Laura,

What if you dance socially for say 9 hours a week, take two 1 hour lessons per week and practice 5 or 6 hours per week. Most serious dancers do lots more than this? And with good technique. One would be doing lots of pounding to their joints. Kids and young adults could probably get away with it for awhile. But what about teachers that are on their feet 8 hours per day? What I'm disappointed in is the lack of or no research and development of the dance shoe companies.

Plus, don't get me started on the eratic music tempos (especially in jive and Int.rumba-- most American style music is impossible without speeding up or slowing it down the tempos) of dance music and outdated syllabus video tapes. Why can't Dance Vision update their video tapes to dvd's with good bookmarks? In some ways the dance world is far behind other industries with new products and consumer satisfaction.

I dance about six hours per week, total. I've been dancing for nearly nine years now.

I must say that I agree with the following poster, "Dancer", that the biggest cause of knee and foot injury is technique faults. A number of years ago I was having tendonitis in one knee that would not go away (and I was dancing about 9 or 10 hours a week at that point). One of my teachers took a very close look at my technique and determined that I was snapping my kneecap backwards whenever I rose in Foxtrot and Waltz. I stopped doing that and the problem went away.

I also agree with Dancer about how the common technique faults aren't confined to just dancing, that you also see it in how people walk. Think about it -- we learn to walk as babies, often wearing diapers that make our legs spread out funny, and once we figure out how to locomote on two legs no one ever really corrects us or teaches us. I started movement coaching with private Pilates/Feldenkrais sessions a few years ago to work on correcting the usage faults I've developed naturally outside of dancing, that carry over into my dancing.

That's not to say that overuse injuries in dance don't exist. But my point is that if something is chronically hurting or inflamed, then the body mechanics need to be looked at. And I don't just mean putting custom orthotics in your shoes, but rather going to someone who can give you the kind of strength, flexibility, and awareness exercises needed to teach you to recognize and correct your ingrained movement habits, and to replace them with better more optimal habits.

I totally agree that injuries will result with bad dance technique. When I first started dancing and was trying to do latin technique with my hips--I was wiggling too much and injured my hip. I have been injury free from dancing since then.

I was a competitive marathon runner and 10k runner for about 15 years. My running style and technique was very accurate. We all ran 50 to 75 miles per week and competed often. Lots of pounding and some foot problems, even with the lastest supported running shoes. We ran of soft surfaces often but most of the time on paved roads. We would have to change out our running shoes about every 1 month due to the flattening out the support system. Most of us had some type of orthopedic support or bought a specialized type of running shoe to fit our bodies and feet.
I use a elyptical machine at the health club now for aerobics. Running does not go so well with lots of ballroom dancing.

Even the flex dance floors that Dance Vision sells has optional foam support of 1/4", 1/2", and 3/4". How long will this foam last before it flattens out and is not that supportive? These floors are expensive. On the DV website they show where the floors have been installed (not many places)--I would make a wild guess that 90% of the dance floors in clubs, studios, VFWs,and other facilities have concrete floors with wood veneer.

The places that I dance do not have flex floors. My teacher always has sore feet and legs. Oh well, we are not so blessed with cushioned dance floors in our area and I see the results with injured women (not many injured men) dancers. These ladies all have good technique and they still get injuries.

I had a local shoe repairman put leather felt soles on some running shoes, it was very clunky feeling when dancing. But it makes a big difference with club dancing. It would kill my feet to dance in clubs with regular dance shoes.

While I agree that we could use better foot support in our shoe design, I think the biggest cause of knee and foot injury is simply bad technique. In the social dance world common technique faults aren't even confined to dancing alone, but a carryover from not learning how to walk properly. Some very common examples I see on the dance floor are bad, misaligned gaits, "sickle-ing", swinging the foot when walking, landing the foot improperly (formally called pronation/supination), and so on.

As for foot support, go out to where there are a lot of people jogging. You will notice that the ones with knee braces are the ones with deficient gaits.

I must be blessed. Here, in the Philadelphia area, the major ballrooms all have sprung floors.

I have tried to dance on a concrete and veneer floor; after about 5-6 steps or so, my wife and I quit.

Jerry

Impossible? Why impossible? Seems to me that anyone planning on opening a dance studio that will attract outside dancers, owes it to their future clientele to GET a cushioned floor. I didn't know a whole lot about dancing when I first started, but one thing I did know what that whereever I was going to start taking lessons would have a cushioned floor. The studio I found and still go to has a full-floating floor. I think it's quite irresponsible for any studio to open without a cushioned floor.

I have to agree with dgcasey,
A major factor in choosing the studio I did was having seen them renovate a month earlier and putting in the new floor.

Sprung floors help of course. Any studio installing flooring should do that - it's easy and remember the staff is on their feet four or more times as much as the typical student. But some studios will use existing building floor, especially if it's already wood.

Shoe padding is not really an answer for real dance shoes. It gets in the way of feeling the floor. But if you want to pad up and resole some athletic shoes for hours of social enjoyment, go right ahead.

A big thing is technique. Not just aiming the movement the right way, also making the movement precisely in a way that isn't jarring. Don't kick the floor in jive!

Maybe technique is important (well, "maybe" probably isn't the right word), but I seem to remember reading a news story a few years ago about a troupe of professional dancers getting ready to put on a show at some theater and they found the stage to be incredibly hard. They refused to even rehearse the show until something was done to soften, or loosen the stage surface, which the theater owners did. If a group of professional dancers won't dance on a solid floor, and we can assume they knew something about technique, then why would amateur dancers do it? Of course, how many amateur (beginning) dancers even know to stay away from solid floors?

The way I look at it, a dance studio has two products to offer their clientele. First, their teachers and expertise. And second, their floor. I wonder how many studios have sacrificed having the best floor they could afford by spending money on things like custom paint jobs, cool artwork and mirrored disco balls. I'd rather take lessons in a warm or cool warehouse with a top-notch floor, than go to a studio that looks like the Roseland Ballroom, but has a thin, wood-veneer over a concrete floor. All the niceties can come later.

I'm looking at building my own studio behind my house somewhere in the future and you can rest assured that the floor will be one of the most expensive items in the building.

Most ballet or jazz dance studios have flex or speciality dance floors. I take adult ballet and my studio has a very large flex dance floor for classes and rehearsals. Ballet and most Jazz shoes have no support, so a cushioned floor is a must. The same for gymnastics.

I have been dancing for about 7 years and just realized that most dance floors have no cushioning. It was due to the injuries of friends and my dance teacher. I work her pretty hard during lessons. We are now getting ready for a competition and doing our competition loops---she is moaning and groaning about sore feet. She is dancing Pro Am with 5 other guys, so now she is really booked to the max and looks exhausted.

The teachers are the ones that should be leading a strike, revolt or start making demands. Their disability risks are high for the long run.

Personally I never wear any type of street shoes. My closet is filled with Keen, Merrell, Ecco, and Rockport shoes. I try to take care of my feet.


Hmm--I wonder how basketball courts are made, surely they have cushioned floors with all those expensive basketball players.