portable dance floor (pdf)

Object: Dance Deck

Reason: Enabling dance troupes to (grand) jeté, i.e. leap,  a significant barrier of entry to rehearsing and performing.

Background: How did I not know about Dance in Public Places, an exhibition that took place February 2011 at The Gallery? Dance Up turned a vacant retail space at the Market Street mall into a dance studio where spectators could watch professional dancers rehearse all month long. I would’ve liked to have watched that! Imagine the juxtaposition between the graceful dancing; the copious eating at the Gallery Food Court; and the picking up of Martha Stewart towels at the Big K. These are the juxtos that bring our city to life.

DanceUp tested the portable dance floor (PDF) during this exhibition, then secured a grant to buy one that Philadelphia dancers and dance companies can rent. Wooden Kiwi, a Somerville, Mass.-based design and construction firm, created the PDF in 2002. It’s made of interlocking squares so the sizing is variable. The squares lock together sans hardware (it’s the FLOR of dance floors). The PDF is a sprung floor, which means it has a subfloor that provides support and all-important shock absorption for dancers. Here’s a video of how easy it is to put together — each panel weighs 45 pounds, and the system comes with custom rolling carts. Philadelphia’s very own version arrived this summer.

Check out Dance Up’s Facebook page for a lovely video of PhilaDanco using the PDF in front of City Hall in July.

I was horrible at ballet, but I liked the tutus and my mother was a professional ballet dancer for a short while so I stuck with classes for six years — my mom had clearly loved it, so I was waiting to love it, too. Never happened. A few years of tap dancing (yes!) saved dance for me, but the Portable Dance Floor gets me more excited about dance than any Buffalo Combination ever did. Long live design.

{photo from Dance Up’s FB album}