Safe Dance Spaces @ Home

How safe is your lounge room for online dance classes?

With more and more people turning to online dance classes and dancing from their lounge room or garage, it is important to take the time to set up your space to make it as safe as possible. 

Size of dance space

Often your home dance set up will be a lot smaller than your usual dance space. It is important to remove anything that you might accidentally knock or kick. Cover or eliminate sharp edges of benches or tables where possible. The dancing itself may also have to be modified to work more on the technique of steps and discussions based on performance rather than practising an entire routine ‘full out’. Let's face it, dancing a routine normally danced on a full stage isn’t going to work so well in your 2m lounge room space. 

Flooring

It is important to think about the type of flooring available to you. Ideally, as dancers, we want something that is sprung and has a degree of inbuilt cushioning as well as something that allows us to turn. Unfortunately, most people won’t have access to a sprung floor at home but there are a few tricks you can do to help keep your dancing safe and enjoyable.

Try to avoid concrete flooring where possible. If that is your best area, consider purchasing some rubber mats or even old rugs to place on top to give you some more shock absorption. You definitely don’t want to end up with stress fractures or shin splints. Floorboards are a good option but make sure they are not too slippery. Place a yoga mat or rug on the floorboards to give you a bit more cushioning for petit allegro and small jumps. Carpet is quite good with regards to shock absorption however you will have to be careful when doing turns as you don’t want to put extra strain on your knee and ankle joints. Carpet burn is also a danger when performing floor work!

Temperature

Wear adequate clothes to keep your body warm when dancing. If you are dancing outside or in the garage, you may need to wear an extra layer of clothing to keep your muscles warm and active. Don’t forget about your feet either, especially if dancing on concrete, make sure your feet and toes stay nice and warm to avoid chilblains.

Warm-up/Cooldown

Warming up your muscles prior to the start of class is imperative to safe dance practice and this can be as simple as jogging on the spot, skipping or doing some star jumps before you hit the ‘Join’ button. Put on your favourite song and dance around the house to it. Save your stretching for the end of class, by this stage, your muscles should be nice and warm so they will be more flexible and you will be able to relax into that nice stretch. Doing slow movements at the end of class is also a great way to slow your breathing back down allowing your body to relax.

Footwear

Where possible, wear your correct dancing shoes if the flooring allows.  Be careful though if you are on rubber or carpet as you may be better to wear an older pair of shoes so that you don’t wear out your new ones… save them for the stage! If you are doing some cardio work with jumps and you don’t feel your flooring has adequate shock absorption, have your runners handy to change into for this section of the class. 

Quality over quantity

With a lot of time at home, now is a great time to try out some of those classes that you have always wanted to. Perhaps a bit of salsa or tap dancing. Just remember to let your body take a break, doing 12 dance classes a day if you are only used to doing two a week may not necessarily make you a better dancer and may lead to injury. Also, consider doing more conditioning and strengthening work as this will be a great help when you do get back into the studio space.

Keep dancing and keep your bodies safe!

Kirsti & Sophie x