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New dance floor options are lighter weight, customizable and fit into every budget.
Every party planner and client these days wants to throw a unique event, all the way down to the dance floor.
“More than ever before, people are looking to create completely unique special events on shoestring budgets,” says Neil Casale of the Rentals Division ofSignature Fencing & Flooring Systems LLC, New York, N.Y.
Fortunately, floor manufacturers are responding with options that fit every budget and kind of event. For the tented event industry in particular, the big, heavy wooden dance floor of the past has given way to lighter weight, synthetic models that are attractive and work for all occasions, Casale says. While dance competitions, high-end weddings and gala events opt for the company’s high end DanceDeck Pro system, the more economical DanceDeck system is the company’s most popular dance floor option, he says.
“DanceDeck features a strong yet light polypropylene co-polymer base tray with our proprietary seven-loop connection system and an attractive vinyl inlay surface in black, white, light wood parquet and dark wood parquet,” Casale says. “In the past it seemed that people were most likely to use the black and white tiles together to create a checkerboard pattern; now it seems that just as many people choose to create an all-black or all-white floor.”
Even as dance floor trends move away from the wood floor staple, regional preferences still exist. Daniel Les of Holo-Walls, based in Westlake Village, Calif., notes that in the Northeast U.S., tastes run more classic than some other areas of the country. Because of this, the company fabricated a blue Liquid Fusion rental floor, reminiscent of a pool or pond and adaptable to a variety of event decors.
“By contrast, in other areas of the country, like L.A. or Miami, our original orange Liquid Fusion is still more popular,” he says. “It looks like molten lava flowing from some tropical volcano.”
Holo-Walls also offers adhesive vinyl dance floor coverings that are completely customizable for high-end budgets, while in-stock solid gloss vinyl fits modest budgets. For clients with mid-range event budgets, Holo-Walls recently embarked on a special order prints program, which allows event planners to choose from thousands of patterns of already designed and printed commercial vinyls. When a client selects a pattern, Holo-Walls purchases the vinyl from the printer and applies the company’s removable adhesive to make the vinyl usable on a dance floor.
“The result is 30 to 40 percent less than custom printing, and the event decorator can choose from existing patterns instead of paying for a digital image and waiting for a layout,” Les says.