We rent church halls all the time.

We usually pay $12.50 - $15 Canadian/hour for a private practice or teaching a lesson. (We have one at $7.50/hr but it's linoleum floor).

Churches raise the rate for for groups. We're used to paying $21 - $25/hour for groups.

OB

Operabob. Is there a draw back dancing on linoleum. We very often strike Vynal tiles, They are OK. We have even done a bit of practise on a surface which was a very harsh and very short piled carpet . It was very good to dance on. It was the type of carpet used in public places. I was told that in Italy it could be on a real tiled floor or painted cement. One coach said that in his opinion it is why Italian dancers are so strong in the feet and ankles.

Look for space, and then use it.

A room in the house (with stuff pushed back), especially for "in place" dances.

A basketball "court" on the side of the house (in nice weather).

In the "common room" of a facility for seniors. Visit a bit and then "entertain". There will probably be at least a few of the seniors who will be interested in watching you.

On travel, we've practiced in an otherwise unused exercise room and in unused and largely empty meeting rooms -- several times a portable dance floor was in place.

We do basic practise in 2 rooms in our basement. We run through manuevers, we are learning or technique we are trying to improve. Once we think we have the basics down, we do the manuevers when we go out dancing, along with the other manuevers we are allready comfortable.

Ironic thing is we built the room 27 years before we started dancing and called it the Ball Room. Meaning a room were our children were allowed to throw balls. Unforetunately the floor is a bit sticky, so practising some manuevers is very difficult. Our grandchildren like to use the room wearing just socks, so I don't want to change the floor.

Your studio doesn't rent floor time for practice? That's seems odd to me. I think most studios do. At mine, for $5, you can practice all day if you want, as long as you don't get in the way of lessons going on.

If there's a friendly atmosphere among the studios in your town, perhaps you can practice at another studio.

If you belong to a gym or the YMCA, they often have rooms with wood floors they use for exercise classes, but you could use them when no classes are scheduled.

Maybe you could see if a school gym or dance room is available to you.

Good luck!

Thank you everyone for your ideas. I'll try to find something. Ellen, $5 for the whole day would be great. Where are you, by the way? My studio charges $17/hr.

The linoleum floor in that particular hall is very sticky for sueded shoes so we only use it to teach beginners or in an emergency.

Then again, some halls over wax their wood floors.

Another possibility is to get a group practice going. I was at one on Wednesday night. It's a young fellow with a passion for WCSwing. He's renting a hall for 2 hrs. @ $25/hr and charging people $5 each. So far he's getting his 10 people so he's not losing anything.

OB

operabob. Have you tried putting Talc Powder on any floor that is sticky. I've done it on my cement floor in the garage. I only use old shoes though, and it was Rumbs Cha and Jive. It worked OK.

Quick,

Talcum powder! OMG! LOL!

Had a very bad experience with talcum powder and a church hall.

We were teaching for the local society. They received a letter from the church demanding we stop using talcum powder and fining us $50 for damage to the floor. (This hall has one of the worst floors in the city to start with).

I went into the office to point out that we don't use talcum powder so it had to be someone else. They insisted it had to be us because it didn't start until we started using the hall. They also insisted we were the last to use the hall before the janitor came in.

We checked: We taught Sunday night but the janitor didn't work Mondays. We also checked and there were multiple groups using it Mondays.

I demanded to see the damage. I was told I was not allowed to see the damage. This was hilarious because we had our own key to the hall and were there every Sunday night.

We always try to leave halls cleaner than when we arrived. Over the next few weeks we had our students watch us sweep the floor before locking up.

(We received a second letter. The church claimed they waited for us to leave one night and went in to find a thick layer of talcum powder everywhere. Besides the fact I have a problem with church members acting like thieves in the night this was an out and out lie. Our students watched us clean every night and offered the same to the office).

Soon after that we arrived at the hall and opened the door to find a large note taped to the floor directly as we came in:



I left a note:



On Tuesday (as the office was closed Mondays and the caretaker didn't work) I informed the church that had "Tom" been one of my employees and talked to a client that way I'd have fired him!

As soon as the term ended my wife and I refused to return there and the Society we teach for was glad to be rid of a bad landlord.

As we left, I'm sure they still had the problem as the hall was being used by a break dancing group and as a country dance centre both of whom use powder.

I have yet to receive an apology from Fairfield United Church here in Victoria, BC, Canada.

Powder! LOL!

OB

If you are a club and you wish to be heard officially. Have yourself our one of your others elected as the representative of the club. Then march into one of these situations as an offical. It doesn't matter if you only have a dozen members or hundreds. you are the elected rep. for your club. Announce yourself as such and lay down the law.Try to look like a James Spader
of Boston Legal fame.