Dance Floors
Black Dance Floor Rentals
Black does the opposite of white: it absorbs light instead of returning it, so anything you put above the floor becomes the thing people see. Beams, lasers, moving heads and haze all read harder over it.
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Specifications
It marks more than any other finish and that is worth knowing.
Dust, footprints and scuffing all show on black. Under show lighting it is a non-issue; under bright house lights before doors, it is visible. On a multi-day install the floor wants a wipe-down each morning and on a dusty outdoor site it needs more attention than a pale or parquet floor would. That is the trade for what the colour does to everything above it.
| Colour | Black |
|---|---|
| Tile size | 12 × 12 in (1 sq ft) |
| Weight | approx. 2 lb per sq ft |
| Assembly | Snap-together interlocking panels, no tools |
| Sub-frame | None — the panels carry themselves |
| Water | Fully waterproof, self-draining |
| Edging | Beveled trim finishes the perimeter |
| Use | Indoor and outdoor |
| Standard sizes | 12×12, 16×16, 20×20, 24×24 ft |
| Custom shapes | Available — modular panels, any footprint |
Sizing against the rig
Four footprints, read against the rig.
The sizing rule is the one the category page sets out. What changes on a dark floor is what each size does to the room around it — a black rectangle reads as depth rather than as an object and that scales.
| Floor | Area | Dancing at once | Suits a guest count of roughly |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12 × 12 ft | 144 sq ft | ~32 | 80–100 |
| 16 × 16 ft | 256 sq ft | ~57 | 140–170 |
| 20 × 20 ft | 400 sq ft | ~89 | 220–270 |
| 24 × 24 ft | 576 sq ft | ~128 | 320+ |
12 × 12 ft
Earns its keep in small dark rooms. A compact black floor in a low-ceilinged bar or private room disappears completely under lighting, so the crowd looks like it is standing in the light rather than on a rectangle somebody put down — much harder to pull off with a pale floor in a small space, where the edges are always visible.
16 × 16 ft
The working size for launches and after-parties: big enough that the crowd has somewhere to go, small enough that it still concentrates people. It is also what we would point a video crew at — a 16-foot non-reflective square under the action, with room for the operator to move around the edge without stepping onto it.
20 × 20 ft
Usually working with a real lighting rig rather than a couple of uplights and the black surface is what makes that rig visible: beams that would wash out over a pale floor stay defined all the way to the ground. It also does two jobs in one footprint under an award-show set — a stage apron during the programme, a dance floor after it.
24 × 24 ft
At this size the dark floor stops being an element in the room and becomes the ground the whole room is built on, so the lighting plan and the floor plan want settling together. Send the room dimensions and any dip you already know about.
Where dark is the right ground
Six rooms it gets out of the way of.
Nightlife-styled events
A club look in a room that is not a club. The floor is the first thing that has to stop reading as a function suite and it is the largest single surface in the frame.
Product launches
Where the product is lit and everything else is not. A dark floor means the only bright thing in the room is the thing you flew somebody in to look at.
Award shows
The same footprint works as a stage apron during the programme and as a dance floor after it, which saves a change-over in a schedule that rarely has room for one.
Anything shot on camera
A bright floor blows out the bottom of the frame and bounces fill up into every face. Black gives a camera a clean base and lets the lighting director keep the contrast they built.
Rooms with haze and beams
Haze is only visible where light cuts through it. Over a pale floor the beam dissolves into bounce before it lands; over black it stays a defined shaft all the way down.
Marquees at night
Outdoors after dark there is nothing around the floor throwing light back, which is the condition black was made for. A beam that has nowhere to bounce stays a beam.
One step further
When the floor should be the light source.
Black gives a rig somewhere to land. The LED floor stops waiting for a rig at all — infinity-mirror glass panels running on sound activation, a remote or the same DMX desk as the rest of the show. It is the floor guests photograph rather than stand on without noticing.
See the LED dance floor