Stagestep Believes the Best Dancers Are Made From the Ground Up 

Floors are rarely front of mind when we think about the components of dance. Pointe shoes, sure, maybe even a bedazzled costume or shining ballet barre—but dance flooring company Stagestep knows all these things rest, literally, on top of a good floor. 

“It’s the foundation of what every dancer performs on,” says Bill Goldberg, Stagestep’s technical services director. “Everything is peripheral to the floor.” Stagestep’s line of products includes over a dozen choices for specialty flooring in wood and vinyl, with portable and permanent options that include prefabricated subflooring for a range of spring levels. 

Below, Goldberg and two other members of Stagestep’s team of experts—managing director Vanessa Botha and sales manager Karen Flanagan—share what makes a dance floor great and how Stagestep helps dancers and studios stand tall. 

What’s the anatomy of a dance floor? 

Bill Goldberg: A good 60 to 70 percent of our floors are installed on top of a concrete pad. On top of that, you’d put down a vapor barrier. Then there are two different types of subfloors: floating floors and sprung floors. The floating floor is typically on foam, and within the foam are little closed cells of air. Hence, you feel like you’re floating on air. The sprung floor is composed of interlaced beams that bend and flex.

The top layer is what everybody sees. There are different vinyl surfaces with different textures, chosen based on the form of dance. But ultimately, beauty is in the eye of the beholder! It’s really up to the studio owner and her teachers to make that final decision.  

Why do dance studios require a subfloor? 

Goldberg: Both types of subfloors provide force reduction and resilience. Force reduction absorbs energy to make the floor safer for dancers, reducing stress on their ankles, knees, hips, and backs. And resilience is bounce. You don’t want a diving board—that would be way too much—but you do want some pop. 

When developing dance floors, what’s the most important factor to you? 

Vanessa Botha: Safety. And this is why we’re selective about our materials and why we go through our innovation processes—to ensure the longevity of the dancer, starting at an early age and carrying them until they go professional. 

Where do you source the materials? 

Botha: We have an extremely long history with our vendors, and we hold the longevity of those relationships very dearly. We normally bring new ideas to them, and they innovate with us. We always ask ourselves, Is this someone we want to work with? Are they considering safety? Are they considering the environment? 

What’s a customer’s biggest challenge, outside of cost? 

Karen Flanagan: Installation. A lot of our customers have jobs during the day and teach or run their dance studios in the evening. They’re relying on “dance dads” to help them. We have installation and maintenance guides that we send, there are videos to watch, and they can call Bill to ask questions. I will FaceTime them and draw little pictures. We do have an installer that we can get them, but if they can’t afford that, I give my personal cell phone to everybody, in case they need me when it’s the weekend. 

What’s your most memorable customer experience? 

Flanagan: During COVID, I had a lot of one-on-one Zoom meetings with parents who knew nothing about the dance world. And here they were with their child, and they were supposed to make a makeshift dance studio in their home so their kid could keep dancing. As much as it was a bad time for the world, I enjoyed getting to talk with the parents. I got cards sent to me saying, “Thank you for helping me. If you’re ever in New Jersey, look me up. We’ll have lunch.” 

What’s the most important thing to know about Stagestep’s services? 

Botha: Flooring is one of the most expensive elements of a dance business. But it doesn’t work to shortcut it. The costumes and the window dressings can change, but the floor is more permanent. You want to make the right decision, because you want it to be with you for the next 15 years—Stagestep even sells floors that are transferable, should studios ever move. And our team is made up of people with great experience: They have daughters or granddaughters that dance, or they danced themselves. 

Goldberg: It’s a great joy. Giving the customers insight, helping them deal with whatever issue. 

Flanagan: I love talking to customers. I love learning your stories and figuring out how to help.