Laying a Marley dance floor

[Schniapereli]

...I too find it funny that a ballet company would own a dance floor but then "have someone else install it" on tours, that just makes no sense. Do they deliver it, or have it shipped? Does someone else do their lighting everywhere too? Or is this just a dance studio doing a recital in your space...that makes more sense to me.


Kenneth Pogin
Production / Tour Manager
Minnesota Ballet

I don't know too much about their situation, because I have only talked to the director a few times on the phone, and have never met her in person. But, I think they are kinda small still. They're not super small, but as she put it, they're "about to go professional." They don't really have their own crew or designers. They recently built their own new sprung floor, with basically all the instillation work done by the dancers. I think when they rent a venue, they have the resident designers just put up what colors she wants. (I think they all still try to expand on her requests, and give her better lighting than "make it pink-ish.")

For their production of Nutcracker, they have two elaborate thrones, a platform for the thrones, some nice costumes, plus a few backdrops and the marley. I don't know where they got it all from, but I know the director used to dance for some big places, and taught at a university, so I guess she may have gotten some things through her connections. Again, I haven't really talked with her much, and I am curious as well.

 

[Schniapereli]

Just to report back, I was able to get a friend from Wyoming to come and help who has done it before, and it went really nicely.

I guess in the past they have had some crew install it really badly and people were tripping over it, so the dancers themselves re-laid all the marley. I guess they hadn't really seen marley that smooth, and all the little kids kept coming over to look at it. We still noticed a few imperfections, but they loved it.

The ballet director also asked to use Sprite instead of Soke to mop parts of the stage to make it less slippery. In the past she has had the black coke come off on the dancers' white shoes. I don't know if they didn't let it dry enough, cause none of you guys mentioned any problems with Coke like that.

 

[jlusardi]

Marley Floor

Hi Everyone,
We are laying out a Marley floor on our stage. We rolled it out the other day and tried to flatten it by pulling and hopping it out. We have four panels of the floor...for the most part we had two pieces that were pretty good. However the third was okay and well there was one piece that is not so good. I wasn't there when it got rolled up last, or when it got unrolled. But myself and another person think that it could have something to do with how it was stored. It has been laying out since Friday. On Friday and most of Saturday each piece was laying on it's own then because of space and a group who was in our auditorium today we had them stacked on top of each other. We pulled them all out after the event today, flipped them so that they are upside down, and laid the worst one on the bottom. We need to have them on stage for Tuesday afternoon, so we are hoping that having them laying out and the weight of the others will help to flatten them out. As of about 6:30 tonight they seemed to be in a little bit better condition then they were on Friday.
Anyway my question is if we lay them all out tomorrow in order, and leave our stage lights on for a while and then go back to hop it out and pull, do you think it would help to stretch it out. And if so how long should we have the lights on for? An hour?
Anything other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance and I hope I have provided enough information.
-Jaclyn

 

[Call911]

I've laid the floor out, brought the electrics in, and put all pars at full for about 4 hours while I did some focusing and other work in the theater. It flattened out all the wrinkles and bumps perfectly. But this was also about 50 pars on four electrics spread out to warm up the floor. YMMV.

 

[DuckJordan]

Honestly, if two people stomping out Marley from center, and two people on one end with tape tabs can't get it flat enough for dance, Then the problems are your floor underneath the Marley, Running lights on it will just make it soft and add dimples later on from you stomping while its warm.

 

[65535]

A buddy and I have gotten it down to 30 minutes to lay four 60' x 6' strips of marley.
Ours however is kept at temperature in the basement on a cart.

We start with a clean stage with cables run for trees (our floor pockets are under the marley).
We pull off all 4 strips and lay them out close to where they go.
Line up the first strip just upstage of the fire curtain pocket.
Tape SL side with Gaff.
While holding the edge have someone mop down the marley with a dust mop keeping the strip under light tension, then tape down marley. We prep 3 strips of Gaff on the marley to tape it down easier.
Tape down the Front edge with Gaff.
Lay down the other strips in the same fashion making sure not to overlap the marley.
Once all strips are down tape seams.
To tape the seams I pull the tape out the entire 60' and lay it down the seam as my partner smooths it out.

 

[kicknargel]

Not all marley is created equal. Your thinner, lighter, probably newer dance floors designed for touring will lay flat nice and easy with no stomping. Your heavier, thicker, older, stiffer dance floors are going to take some extra work. Baking for four hours under stage light is a last resort, but not uncommon. Be careful not to get the lights too close that they bubble/melt a spot of the floor.

Another tip for uncooperative marly is to use the "Martha Grahm" taping method, wherein you stretch and tape down all sides of the first piece, then line up the second piece overlapping the tape that's on the stage floor, stretch and tape over the seam, and tape the other edge down the stage, then bring in the next piece. Takes twice as much tape, but you get more contact with the stage floor than the tiny gap in the traditional method.

 

[jlusardi]

Thanks for the advice. The problem definitely is the Marley and not our stage floor. I honestly believe that the reason we are having trouble is because of how it was rolled last year and where it was stored. I think we might try lowering our lights a little, but definitely not all the way and leaving them on for like an hour. Though by the time we go to flatten the floor out and tape it down we may not need to use the lights to help. Hopefully the fact that they have been laying out for several days will help the process

 

[JBrennan]

Also known as the "Marley hop" or "dance floor shuffle."

I've always known it as the Marley Shuffle.

 

[derekleffew]

From the Twitter,

http://t.co/Ep0aWqc7
with the caption,
Reasons you don't use a forklift to roll out a dance floor.

 

[jstroming]

Quick fix to get out the bubbles in marley: Clothing iron! Put a rag between the iron and marley, and have at it. Works really well on Harlequin reversible, not sure about other types though!

 

[Sony]

From the Twitter,

Twitter / AnonLxTech: Reasons you don't use a forklift ...
with the caption,
Reasons you don't use a forklift to roll out a dance floor.

Holy Bajeebus those guys are fired!!

The couple times I have worked with ABT and "Stiefel and Stars" (American Ballet Theatre) they have always wanted ALL Gaff tape because the different texture of the gaff actually helps some dancers place themselves on the stage because they can feel each time they pass a Gaff taped seam. This helps them with choreography because they know how far upstage/downstage they have traveled while they are dancing without looking down.

ABT uses the tape one end, bunny hop across with one person standing on the taped end while another pulls and stretches the other end method. They also tape all 4 sides of one piece before butting the next piece up to the first so each seam gets double taped.

Island Moving Company out of Newport RI who I used to work with regularly used a slightly different method of only taping the front seam after each row so the seams were only single taped together. They did this to save Gaff tape and also because their shows only usually lasted for a couple days and therefore didn't require the extra security of more tape. They also preferred to use Gaff tape rather than vinyl tape because of it's feel.

I've found most dance companies use the latter method but a lot of the bigger companies use the former. Some companies also claim that the former method prevents the floor from shifting upstage/downstage due to stretch or slip since the floor is usually only stretched left to right and not up to down.

 

[njlace]

I am in the process of choosing a floor for my new studio. I have never laid a floor down. Currently the studio has a concrete base with no pile commercial carpet over it. Any suggestions of whether or not I can just put a layer of birch over the carpet....then add my marley?? I have alot of prices for sprung floors, but don't need that yet...when studio grows I will invest the money.

 

[TheaterEd]

My opinion would be that you need to pull up the carpet. Trying to get the birch to line up and stay in place would be difficult at best. Especially with it being used for dance. I assume you are wanting the carpet to soften the floor a bit, but I think if you do this, you are going to have a bad time.

 

[MNicolai]

I am in the process of choosing a floor for my new studio. I have never laid a floor down. Currently the studio has a concrete base with no pile commercial carpet over it. Any suggestions of whether or not I can just put a layer of birch over the carpet....then add my marley?? I have alot of prices for sprung floors, but don't need that yet...when studio grows I will invest the money.

I would recommend you move to a proper sprung floor. It's one thing to dance on a non-sprung wood floor with some layers of lumber and framing between the concrete and the finished floor surface. It's another entirely to dance on what is effectively a solid concrete surface (without the carpet, that is).

I would also specifically discourage you from maintaining the carpet. You don't want to guess at creating an improvised sprung floor by leaving that layer of carpet in as padding. I've heard horror stories from a local TD on a production he worked on many years ago where they improvised a sprung floor. Ended up creating what acted more like a gymnastics floor than a dance floor. The effect of the overabundance of spring in the floor was that when dancers landed on the floor, their energy was driven into the floor and then reflected directly back up into their legs. IIRC, they had two dancers shatter fibulas and another their femur before tearing up the floor and throwing it out.

Don't guess at this kind of thing. Dancers' careers can be stunted or ended altogether on a faulty floor.

 

[kicknargel]

I agree with the previous two comments. I'd add that if you are building something yourself, you're going to want two layers of ply with staggered seams to ensure flat/flushness at the seams.

 

[matcreyn]

Oh, and a great cleaning trick is to dampen a big towel and clip it around a dust mop (towel mopping). You've probably done that. The trick part is to pierce the lid of a bottle of isopropyl alcohol and have someone squirt it lightly in front of you as you push the mop. About 1/2 a bottle does the floor. This picks up dust and oils--both big contributers to slipperiness.

No!
Do not clean your floor with ammonia, alcohol, and acetone (the 3 A’s)
Why: Every Marley type floor is made with a plasticizer that allows flexibility, so the floor can roll up, otherwise the floor would be ridged and subject to cracking. Ammonia and alcohol releases the plasticizer causing the floor to get stiff and ultimately crack, in essence accelerating the aging process. Acetone will first soften, and then melt the floor.
What to do: Clean your floor on a regular basis (once a week) with an approved cleaner. Special spot removing treatments should be available from your floor supplier.

and also...

Do not use coca cola, vinegar or other remedies to make your floor non-slip
Why: Most dance floors do not have a factory finish to protect them from foreign substances. Coke will literally dissolve your floor and vinegar mixed with the body oils and lotion already on the floor makes for a pungent and ineffective salad dressing.
What to do: To keep your floors non-slip first keep them clean on a regular basis. Second eliminate big swings in temperature and humidity in the room to reduce moisture build up, and third, use entrance mats to stop foreign materials and dirt from getting on your floor.

I've done a bunch of research on dance floor maintenance, from dancers who whine about the texture but don't care about actually maintaining the floor to manufacturers who just want you to buy their detergent/degreaser, but the actual dance floor manufacturers (I called and talked to Harlequin about all these issues) have specific instructions for marley maintenance.

 

[Zebulon1880]

My high school is doing a rental for this ballet company that wants to come in and perform on our stage, and they want to bring their marley floor, but they usually have someone else install it. For their show at our school, that person would be me, but I have never really done it.
I heard there are some tricks to it, like leaving it out over night so that it flattens out, or something like that, and that you use gaff tape on the SL and SR edges, but use marley tape on the seams of the long strips. Aside from that, I assume you just line them up, and work your way back.
Is this correct?
Any comments on technique or tape used?

I have been a ballet stage technician for 30 years which includes 2 national tours with the Oakland Ballet Company. All of the comments here are valid. One thing about marley floors is that from repeated stretching and re-rolling causes the width to expand in the center stage area of the panel. So, when I set my gap between each panel after stretching, I allow 1/2" gaps at the ends and set 1/4" gaps at center. As for tape... I prefer Shurtape Gaffers tape
P- 665W Professional Grade, Water Resistant Gaffer's Tape.
https://www.shurtape.com/products/p-665w/