Is there any 『Legend』? OMG, it has. It doesn't look like it on the surface, but there is a special structure under the flooring of a professional dance studio. Dance, especially for dancing Ballet en pointe, is relatively more demanding on the dancer's joints and legs than other dance genres. Repeatedly practicing grand allegro movements (big jumps) on ‘hard flooring’ such as tiles, concrete or wooden floors is more likely to cause medial tibial stress syndrome (or shin splints, generally refers to painful tibialis anterior), which is very disturbing and affects the dancer's performance enormously. Therefore, in order to protect dancers' professional careers and allow them to perform at their best with peace of mind and confidence, nowadays, stages and professional dance studios choose to install dance-specific floorings - Sprung Floor.
A Sprung Floor does not refer to a trampoline that bounce people up high when you jump on it. Instead, it is composed of some special shock-absorbing materials that are widely arrayed on the floor in specific formation - to evenly absorb the shock generated by jumping.
After that, topped with several layers of wood in staggered pattern, to form planes that provide a properly resilient, stable but not too hard ground in order to evenly absorb the shock generated by jumping. However, a professional dance-specific flooring is yet to complete. The criterion of a suitable dance floor varies with dance genres; and its material of the surface layer is the part that differs most for different dance styles. Unlike Hip-Hop that dance with sneakers, Ballet requires a floor surface that can generate excellent traction while allowing the feet to glide on in a controlled manner; barefoot or socks-wearing dance genre like Contemporary Dance also requires a slip-resistant floor surface, as opposed to rubber-like material (non-slip) that restrict gliding, with feet getting caught, resulting to frictional burns.
After the composite floor is constructed, it is crucial to lay Marley (a dance-specific roll-out vinyl) for further shock absorption and slip-resistance, so as to reduce the stress to a dancer's feet after long hours of practice. This is also why some stage floors for ballet (with Marley) forbids the use of ladders or placing heavy objects directly on dance floor. If it is laid on a multi-purpose stage, usually a portable Sprung Floor will be installed, while for dance studio, a semi-permanent Sprung Floor will be installed.
Is it alright to just lay teak floor?
If the space is meant to be a general activity room, drama rehearsal room, or studio for dance genre with specific shoes (such as ballroom dancing), there is no problem at all; but for ballet, it is highly not recommended. In foreign countries, it happened that a dance company only arranged laying Marley on hard floor, as opposed to installing Sprung Floor underneath Marley during production week (the stage rehearsal week leading to performance), and as a result a dancer injured his ankle few days before performance. (What a stress!) This is exactly the reason why Art Neutron is willing to invest so much resources in the studio flooring - to allow everyone enjoy the fun of dancing with peace of mind and safety.