"padded" stage surface, is there a technique for doing a hard shoe dance on this?

[Mrs Brown]

Sorry - not sure if my title is very clear. My girls do a flamenco duet, they are very good at it as they actually study it as a dance style. However we have noticed that some festivals and competitions have an almost padded stage surface which just absorbs their stamps so you hardly hear them. Is there some sort of technique to this or do we just give up and not bother? It is disheartening for them as they get out on stage and the sound aspect of it falls flat. They have done very well at places with a normal stage top but the padded ones make it seem like they aren't even trying. Any advice please? Thank you

[trog]

The shoes in Riverdance, Burn The Floor and other shows have microphones attached. The Rockettes too. Maybe you could consider that? There is a special tap shoe microphones available, but I suspect they will be expensive.

[Mrs Brown]

Hmm not sure that would be allowed sadly.  Riverdance etc do use them yes but they also use different floor surfaces which don't deaden the tap apparently (I asked Harlequin this afternoon out of interest and they were really helpful, can't fault their quick reply to my rather random email). Oh well perhaps we just have to pick our competitions carefully or accept this dance style doesn't work in comps and festivals sadly.

 

Thanks for your reply.