Ballroom and Latin stars rely on a great dance floor to work with them

Viewers of BBC TV’s flagship entertainment show, Strictly Come Dancing will be familiar with ballroom dancers Kevin Clifton and Karen Hauer. This weekend they both progressed to next week’s final. Kevin from Grimsby, paired with celebrity Frankie Bridge of singing group the Saturdays and Karen partnering The Only Way is Essex cast member Mark Wright, were earlier interviewed by Harlequin Floors when appearing in Burn the Floor at the Shaftesbury Theatre. Described as the ultimate high-energy, high voltage dance show featuring a blend of Latin and ballroom routines, Burn the Floor has thrilled audiences around the world. And the floor is clearly an important element for the quality of performance and safety of the dancers. Kevin explains that “you need to trust the tools you work with and the way to tell if it is a great floor is that you don’t necessarily notice it straight away. If you come onto the floor and the first thing you notice is the floor, then may be it is too hard or too soft, it is too slippery or has too much grip. If you are noticing it straight away, then that kind of means there is something you have to adapt to. Whereas when you come out onto a Harlequin floor, you don’t notice it straight away, so you can relax into your performance and trust that you will be able to do whatever you need to do.” Karen picks up the theme adding, “The thing for me is whether your legs and muscles hurt a bit, especially after a two hour show where we are jumping and sliding and every part of you is on the floor at some point and we get very sore legs with just the exercise alone. So having a floor that really works with us is extremely important. An artist has his canvas, a photographer has his camera, we dancers need our floor and the Harlequin Floors are the best you can dance on because you don’t feel so tired. It gives us a bit more ‘umph’ and it works - and that is all that matters we just want a floor that works with us.” You can see the full interview with Karen and Kevin on the Harlequin Floors video channel.

For more information on Ballroom and Latin stars rely on a great dance floor to work with them talk to Harlequin Floors (British Harlequin plc)