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Dancer performing tap dance on O'Mara sprung floor in front of wooden panels, showcasing the flexibility and support of high-quality dance flooring.

5 Portable Floors for Home Dance Practice


Staying in good health mentally and physically is more important than ever. Environment is a key contributing factor in wellness, today we’re talking about your dance space and the benefits of portable dance floors. Are you still trying to practice from home without a proper dance floor? Your home dance practice keeps you healthy and stable in so many ways, and your body is what enables you to dance! So first, let’s talk about caring for your body through your dance routine and more importantly: your dance floor. No matter what your style, the foundation is most important. Foundational technique, and the foundation under your feet: the dance floor. In days past you waltz into the dance studio and voila! here’s your dance floor. It may not be the ideal surface (but that’s a conversation for a later time), but you’ve got your environment set. At home now, you are responsible for creating your dance environment, setting the foundation, ensuring you have a good floor, practicing good technique. The floor department is where we step in, providing the highest quality portable dance floors for home practice, so that you have a space in which to dance for hours on end, allowing yourself to get out of your head and into your body (mental health!), while providing your body with the resilient and cushioned surface to protect your backs, joints, tendons, muscles from undue stress (physical health!).

Different dance styles have different dance flooring requirements, for example: Tap dancers want crisp, clean sounds (but those practicing in apartments might need to muffle their taps a bit, sacrificing clarity for friendly neighbor relations). Ballet dancers need a surface with very good grip, to feel secure en pointe. Hip hop dancers want a surface that their shoes won’t scuff and squeak on and leave black marks all over like a basketball floor. Irish dancers are looking for a surface that gives clean sounds and good grip (and again, apartment dwellers may want a quieter floor). Modern, Indian classical, and other barefoot dancers want a floor with a seamless feel; no sticky, rippled vinyl or tape to trip over. Many of our portable and residential dance floors do triple duty, some are designed with specific styles in mind. We’ll break it down further below.

Portable Tap Dance Floor

Tap dancers know that sound clarity is everything, and so many dance floors don’t provide the clean crispness they need. We manufacture portable dance floors that tap dancers love, with options for all levels of tap dancer, from beginner to pro. Our best portable tap dance floor that will work for any tap dancer is our ProLine Maple Travel Board XL with Tap+ Urethane. The ProLine Maple floor is our most durable dance floor, and the addition of Tap+ Urethane makes the floor super easy to keep clean.

Portable Dance Floor that Works Best for Tap Dance: ProLine Maple Travel Board XL with Tap+ Urethane

Portable Marley Dance Floor for Ballet

Ballet dancers are looking for a surface that is smooth, stable, and slip-resistant. We have several portable dance floor options for ballet dancers: some that require rosin for pointe work and some that don’t. While our beautiful Ash dance floors give a seamless floor feel and will never need to have vinyl re-taped, they do require rosin for pointe work. Our most portable and easiest maintenance portable ballet dance floor is our 3’ x 4’ Sprung Ballet Floor. This is a one-piece portable ballet practice floor, to which we can add a handle on the back for easier portability. This birch sprung floor is pre-finished with a Ballet Floor vinyl dance surface, which does not require rosin for pointe-work, so maintenance is exceedingly simple.

Portable Dance Floor that Works Best for Ballet Dancing: 3’ x 4’ Sprung Ballet Floor

Hip Hop Dance Floor

Hip hop dancers need a floor that protects their joints and allows them to move easily across the surface, one that is smooth and comfortable for spins and headstands. For hip hop dancers, the best portable hip hop dance floor is our 4’ x 6’ Ash Sprung Floor, or any of our other Ash dance floors. These floors provide a smooth, seamless surface feel, the resilience to protect the body, and a surface that is slip-resistant enough to feel secure, and smooth enough to easily move across.

Portable Dance Floor that Works Best for Hip Hop Dancing: 4’ x 6’ Ash Sprung Dance Floor
portable ballet dance floor

Irish Step Dance Home Practice Floor
Irish dancers need a floor that gives a crisp, clear sound and feels comfortable under their fiberglass soles. Many of our floors will work well for Irish dancers, and the final choice comes down to the dancer and their technique and skill level. Many younger dancers will prefer a floor surface that has a little more grip, while more advanced competitive dancers will love the ultra-crisp sound and quicker surface of our ProLine Maple floors. The best portable Irish Step dance floor for all Irish dancers is our Raw Birch Travel Board. It is easily portable, can be taken on a plane, has a good sound from the wood surface, and enough slip-resistance for all dancers to feel comfortable.

Portable Dance Floor that Works Best for Irish Step Dance: Raw Birch Travel Board

Indian Classical Dance Practice Floor
Indian classical dancers need a floor that is smooth underfoot. and resilient to support their bodies and feet during many hours of continuous dancing. The smooth finished surface of our Ash Sprung Dance floors feels excellent on bare feet. The best portable Indian Classical dance floor is our 6’ x 8’ Ash Sprung Dance Floor. It provides enough surface area to practice for and perform an arangetram. The shock absorption of this floor and all of our floors, provides the protection necessary to keep the body safe and healthy during hours of dancing.

Portable Dance Floor that Works Best for Indian Classical Dance: 6’ x 8’ Ash Sprung Dance Floor

…Find out how our portable dance floors are made.

Portable Dance Floors Keep You Healthy

A good sprung dance floor is critical for protecting your body, your instrument for a long and healthful dancing career. Whether you are on a professional track, or enjoying dance as a hobby, creating a safe dance environment is important. All dancers are practicing at home more than ever these days, and now is the ideal time to prepare your space to honor your body and your practice.

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Woman joyfully dancing on a sprung floor in a well-lit, elegant room.

TESTIMONIALS

Hear it From Our Clients

I LOVE my O'Mara Maple portable practice panel. It sounds absolutely fantastic and my joints/feet never hurt after using it (like they do when I take class at the studio)! It is a superb dance floor!!

Sharon G.

Texas, USA

We are loving the floor and received rave reviews during our first season!

Kevin P.

California, USA

Thanks so much for your excellent customer service, everything went like clockwork! The delivery, packaging, and timing were exceptional! The quality and precision of your products is outstanding, not to mention the fact you include all of the tools needed to install the floor. As a contractor it was difficult to believe that we did not have to make a single cut, everything was numbered and the diagram was spot on, thanks again.

Forrester G.

USA

From the moment the floor arrived your meticulous attention to detail was evident. The way it came crated blew me away. Nothing was left to chance, everything was secured and protected. It said a lot without saying a word. Rita called me earlier today after completing her first class..... "The floor made all the difference in the world" was her quote.

Roger & Rita O.

USA

I would highly recommend the O’Mara Sprung floor system to anyone. The floor is studio quality, easy to maintain, and beautiful to look at, even after hours of tap dancing.

Cindy V.

California, USA

We are happy with the floor. The shipping was secure and done well. So everything is good. The floor is expensive but you can tell it is higher quality. I am actually using the floor in a 4 by 8 pattern right now since the 8 by 8 was slightly big for my space right now but at least I can expand it when ready. So I love the fact that you can change the size of the floor. Keep up the good work!!

Rick S.

USA

It is perfect for tap dancing. It is well made and high quality. I have practiced or taken lessons in four different studios and until I practiced on this floor I could never really hear the steps clearly and how I was doing them. The sound and clarity of the floor is wonderful for tap dance. You can really “hear” if you are doing the steps right or not.

Christine K.

Florida, USA

I’ve been meaning to email and thank you for all of your assistance and support with setting up our floor. We are very happy with it and the dancers like it as well.

Alexandra O.

Michigan, USA