As the owner of a new dance school, the process of putting together all the necessary equipment for dance and ballet studios is still very fresh in my mind. The following is a list of what is needed in each dance studio:
1) Marley or other vinyl floor covering. This is the dance surface of choice for ballet, modern/jazz, and tap instruction. There are several manufacturers of vinyl dance floor products. Most come in 5 to 6 foot wide rolls in lengths up to around 100 feet. Marley is typically rolled onto a hardwood floor and “floats” on the floor with no adhesive other than special vinyl tape used on seams and edges. Since the marley is not permanently attached to the ground, it can be rolled up if needed for a performance elsewhere. One important thing to note is that ballet dancers are not allowed to use rosin on marley – rosin damages the vinyl surface and is very difficult to remove.
2) Sound system for CDs and/or Bluetooth connection to an iPhone/Android device. A remote controlled sound system is essential so that the instructor can easily repeat sections of music as needed.
3) Bars, either wall mounted or freestanding. See the section on bar construction below for more detailed information.
4) Wall mirrors. Mirrors must be mounted on at least one wall (preferably two adjoining walls). They should start as close to the floor as possible, but even young dancers can see their feet from anywhere in the studio as long as the bottom of the mirror is less than 15 inches from the floor. The top of mirrors must be a minimum of 6 feet from the floor.
5) A small table for the instructor’s notebook or other teaching materials can also be used for the sound system.
6) Big wall clock. Dancers and instructors need to know the start and end times of the classes.
Ballet bars – Build or buy?
One of the most important pieces of equipment in a ballet school is the barre. There are many commercially available ballet barres, but we ultimately decided to make our own barre for the following reasons:
7) Commercially available bars are expensive. A professional-grade 12-foot bar typically costs $400-$1000 for a freestanding model and $300-$600 for a wall-mounted version.
8) Our experience with commercially available standalone busbars is that even the highest quality models eventually fail at the connection points.
9) We wanted bars that were absolutely rock solid and would last for many years. We believe that most commercial freestanding bars are too light and “flimsy”.
10) We wanted a barre system that was flexible enough to meet the needs of our school’s ballet class schedule for many age ranges, as well as modern, jazz, and tap dance classes.
To give our school maximum flexibility in our class schedule, we decided to build two free-standing 12-foot poles for each of our two dance studios. We chose a freestanding pole so that we could (1) have dancers on both sides of the pole and (2) orient the pole as a single 24′ span or two parallel 12′ spans. Since (unlike commercial bars) we have no need to disassemble the bars for shipping, we decided to eliminate the joints (and therefore the possibility of joint failure) by using steel tubing and welding the joints.
The exact specifications of the bars are as follows:
– The pipe material is 1 ½ inch schedule 40 black steel pipe. This tube has a 1.9″ OD. Using 1.9″ diameter tubing (a) makes for much stronger welds and (b) is very comfortable to grip.
– The top of the bar is 12′ long and is 42″ from the floor.
– The legs of the bar are an inverted “T” with the “feet” (ie the part of the leg that rests flat on the ground) 2′ long.
– The top of the bar sticks out 18″ on each side of the legs. This allows the bar to be moved easily.
– We decided to have a lower bar welded between the legs at a height of 32″ for our younger dancers.
Schedule 40 pipe is available from most steel suppliers (search for “steel pipe city name”). The tubing comes in 21′ lengths and the steel supplier will usually do one cut per tubing at no additional cost. I had the pipes cut into 12′ and 9′ lengths to minimize waste.
Our welder had no problem making the bars. Included in the fabrication was complete deburring of all exposed ends. The result is a smooth, rounded edge that does not require any type of end cap.
After our welder completed the bar, I purchased rubber feet (1.5″ diameter and 1″ thick) and screwed them to the ends of the “feet” of the bar. This has worked extremely well in eliminating marley damage in our studies.
To finish the bars, I first sanded the surfaces with 180-grit sandpaper to smooth out the horizontal gripping surfaces and prepare them for painting. I then sprayed with textured black paint. Three coats resulted in a beautiful finish that resembles powder coat at a fraction of the price.
The response from dancers to the bars has been uniformly excellent. Although heavy (they weigh around 60 pounds each), two young dancers have no problem moving them to the center and propping them against the walls when necessary. We have had no issues with fixed bar heights.
The total cost for 4 bars was approximately $450 in materials and $400 in welding services, for a total cost of $850 or $212 per bar.
