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How to Choose Barre Fitness Flooring
Find the perfect floor for your studio with our barre fitness flooring buyer’s guide. Choose the perfect floor to support everything from barre fitness to traditional dance classes.
Over the last decade or so, barre fitness has become a super hot trend in the group fitness industry. It seems like fun, unique group fitness classes have become even more of a standard compared to your average gym membership. And it makes sense – they are so much fun!
Barre fitness particularly appeals to dancers and former dancers looking to stay in shape, as well as anyone looking to increase flexibility and achieve the coveted dancer’s body.
While this trend grows at lightning speed, it seems like these fitness studios are popping up all over the place. And many of them are great, but many leave something to be desired, whether that’s instruction or general appearance.
While I can’t help you choose better teachers, I can help you make your studio look fierce! And that begins with your barre fitness floor. It sets the tone for the entire space.
Many ballet fitness studios use carpet for their studio flooring. And, I mean, it works okay. If your athletes wear socks, they can slide on the carpet without tearing up their feet. But laying on a low pile carpet can feel scratchy and even give you rug burn. It’s just not the ideal choice for a barre fitness studio.
Instead, we recommend using traditional dance flooring, specifically what we refer to as “marley” flooring. All that really means is a slip-control rolled vinyl dance flooring. And there are many marley dance flooring options to choose from, depending on your needs.
Marley Barre Fitness Flooring
So marley is one of those brand-name-turned-generic deals. Kind of like post-its. Post-it is a brand name for the sticky papers I use to stick little notes and reminders all over my desk, but let’s be real, I always buy the generic. The Post-it brand just became so popular that people started using them interchangeably. Same goes for marley.
True Marley is no longer available anywhere, but the rolled vinyl we all know as marley is more readily available than ever! And it’s the most popular flooring option for ballet and barre fitness alike.
Because marley is the standard of the ballet world, it makes sense that it would translate perfectly into ballet-based fitness. It gives your athletes the perfect amount of slide and grip to work through your most challenging class.
Good news! We’ve got plenty of marley dance floors for you to choose from that will look sharp and feel great in your studio. Let’s check ‘em out.
Dance Floor
Dance Floor Rolls are the ideal ballet dance flooring, making them perfect for ballet-based fitness. They have just the right combination of slide and grip, providing a medium-fast speed.
Our Dance Floor rolls are ultra lightweight, designed to be portable and convenient for travel. However, you can absolutely install them semi-permanently in your studio, as well.
In addition to being the best suited for ballet and barre fitness, these babies come at a smokin’ hot price. They are the most affordable barre fitness flooring option on the market.
Our light and portable Dance Floor rolls are also great for jazz, contemporary, hip hop and more.
Dance Floor Installation Options
- Semi-permanent
- Temporary
Adagio
The Adagio roll is the most popular and versatile dance flooring option. In fact, if you have marley installed right now, I’d be willing to bet it’s the Adagio floor.
If you need a flooring option you can use for barre fitness, traditional ballet, tap, jazz, contemporary and more, the Adagio is where it’s at. Adagio dance flooring rolls are medium-fast, offering just enough slip-resistance and plenty of slide.
Adagio Installation Options
- Permanent
- Sem-permanent
- Temporary
Arabesque
This floor ain’t messin’ around. Arabesque marley rolls are heavy duty, tough and durable enough to hold up to the busiest fitness studios.
These are the opposite of the Dance Floor rolls – they are thick, heavy and best for permanent or semi-permanent installations. This is not the floor you want to take on the road.
Also, this is a fast floor. You’ll get lots of slide and easily move your feet through all movements. Often times, barre fitness studio owners love this because you’re not doing as many turns and technical movements in a barre fitness class so you don’t have to worry as much about slipping. And the durability is great for a high-traffic studio.
The Arabesque rolls are so tough, they can handle barre fitness, traditional ballet, tap, jazz and even things like Irish step and flamenco.
Arabesque Installation Options
- Permanent
- Semi-permanent
Wood-Look Barre Fitness Flooring Rolls
If you’ve ever been to the fancy studios in NYC, chances are you’ve seen those marley rolls that somehow look like hardwood. How do they do that?!
It’s easier than you think! Those floors are nothing more than a traditional vinyl dance flooring roll with a wood look.
And good news! We have them!
Impact Rolls – Wood Series
These are the most beautiful, convincing and durable wood-look barre fitness flooring rolls on the market. The Impact Rolls are thick and durable enough to hold up to everything from dance to gym flooring (making them perfect for a fusion between the two!) and more.
Our impact rolls are like attaching a vinyl marley roll to a 5mm rubber underlayment. These can be especially helpful if you don’t have a sprung subfloor*. They are also versatile enough for traditional ballet, jazz and contemporary, as well.
Impact Rolls Installation Options
- Permanent
- Semi-permanent
*Note: These are not a replacement for a sprung subfloor. They are not nearly as shock-absorbent. However, if you don’t do a sprung subfloor, they are better than a thinner vinyl marley on its own.
Eco Impact Rolls – Wood Series
Just like the Impact Rolls, but with foam backing which makes them a little more friendly for the wallet.
These are great if you only plan on using light weights. They double as a gym flooring so you can totally give them a little heat; they’re just not quite as durable as the originals.
Eco Impact Rolls Installation Options
- Permanent
- Semi-permanent
Sprung Subflooring
If you don’t have any traditional dance classes going on at your ballet fitness studio, you can totally skip these. However, if you have people regularly doing full dance classes, you might want to consider sprung dance subfloors.
The sprung subfloor absorbs and distributes the dancer’s weight, which allows dancers to continue to jump, leap and roll with a lower risk of injury.
Barre Fitness Flooring Durability / Longevity
All of our marley rolls are specifically designed to hold up to years and years of dancing at all levels. In fact, most of them boast at least a 5 year warranty, with our wood-look options offering as many as 10 years.
These rolls are in it for the long haul.
Barre Fitness Flooring Installation
Each dance flooring roll is a little different and this also depends on whether you are doing a permanent, semi-permanent or temporary installation.
Each of our marley rolls is rated for either permanent, semi-permanent or temporary installation. Just check the manufacturer’s specifications and follow the direction for your desired installation.
Traditionally, you can easily install marley dance rolls yourself by laying rolls flat and using vinyl tape over the seams*. Of course, we always recommend checking the product specifications before installation.
*Tip: Lay marley rolls out for 24-48 hours to give them time to relax into position and avoid waves. Use 1/16”-⅛” gap between rolls to allow for expansion and contraction.
Barre Fitness Flooring Maintenance
No matter how many signs you put up that say “No shoes in the studio,” you know people are gonna walk in with their shoes and track in outside dirt and grime all over your beautiful floor. I know, it is so frustrating!
The best way to combat how difficult it is to keep the outside dirt away is to choose a dance floor that is easy to take care of. You’re going to have to end up cleaning it regularly, so you don’t want a floor that requires a big song and dance (pun intended).
The good news is all of our marley barre fitness flooring options are super easy to clean and maintain. The just require sweeping/vacuuming and a damp mop with a mild cleaning solution.
If you end up with scratches that really bug you, you can give it a more careful scrub. But, generally speaking, it’s really just as easy as taking care of any home floor. Just make sure to clean up spills right away and you’ll be good to go!
Ready to get started?
Ari Ziskin is our resident expert in all things fitness, dance and flooring trends. After five years of blogging at Ari’s Menu, where she was featured on sites like The Huffington Post and Buzzfeed, Ari decided to pursue writing full-time. Nothing makes her happier than sharing her knowledge to help people create their gyms and begin their fitness journey.
