"Where the rubber meets the road." Auto racers live and win by that credo. Millions are spent in a never- ending quest for that perfect auto-to-road contact, which keeps the racer on the road and out of the weeds.

"Where the foot hits the floor" is the credo that leads to a winning dance performance - or to a stumble and fall. Finding that perfect foot-to-floor contact is a dancer's holy qrail. A dancer's shoe, just like a racer's tire, is an all-important part of a winning performance.

That fine balance between stick and slip can make or break a turn or figure. A floor that is too sticky can slow a turn to the point where timing disappears. A floor that is too slippery can cause a dancer to over- rotate on a turn and compromise a leader’s balance to the point where figures become hazardous or impossible to perform. Stopping on that proverbial dime becomes a guessing game: "If I put my foot here, I may stop sliding there." "Can I lift her from there without falling down?"

An Eyelash From Disaster

Floors became a dominating factor for us at the 2003 Berlin Dance Competition at Atlantis in Toronto on April 5. My dance partner Sharon and I were more restrained and less playful on that occasion for one very significant reason. The dance floor was akin to Teflon on ice, absolutely hazardous due to its slipperiness. When the floor is constantly sliding from under you, turns, dips, drops and lifts are an eyelash from disaster.

My heart was in my throat – not from nailing that first drop in front of an enthusiastic crowd, but from worries of losing footing and balance and dropping Sharon.

We surmised there was a problem when the organizers urged us before we even doffed our coats, “Try the floor, it is a little slippery." Understatement of the year.

We have danced on everything from gravel with street musicians to wood and slate at The Courthouse. At Atlantis, we danced on what was basically the backside of a clipboard. The light shining from that floor could have been reflected from a sheet of ice or glass. Some of the professional couples mumbled about not bringing their rubber-soled shoes to deal with that floor. Even they were very worried about it.

I had to coax Sharon into dancing on that floor. On the fly, we shortened all of our distances and steps, to ensure that our centres of gravity remained over our feet as much as possible. We didn’t fall, but we didn’t dance with the apparent flat-out abandon that a winning performance needs.

The couples whose routines were entirely salsa probably had the hardest time finding and maintaining any kind of stability — especially for the overhead lifts. I watched two salsa-oriented couples slipping as their feet looked for purchase and their partners skittered around on the very ragged edge of safety.

Leather or suede soled dancing shoes did not make any appreciable difference. I almost danced in my boots that have a composition sole — and am not sure if that would have made any difference. I was too polite to go out in bare feet — which I know would have had sufficient traction. As everyone knows or learns very quickly, leaders need stability for their follower to flit and float and turn. A careful look at the Berlin Final stills and videos will reveal feet subtly shifting, sliding and moving with a life of their own, independent of any rhythm except the rhythm of remaining vertical.

A risk manager would have blanched at that floor. Everyone was very lucky - this time.

On the positive side, the stage frame was firm, apparently a great improvement over last year. Perhaps in future years, a simple plywood sheet coated with fast-drying (as in 15 minutes) highway paint may finally solve the floor problem. Test-driving this combination before committing it to a stage may work.

What is the Perfect Floor

That leads to the magic question. What is the perfect floor? And the answer is just as magic — everything and seemingly anything. An ordinary unpolished wood floor is the dancer's best bet with an unpolished linoleum floor running a close second. Theater stage floors, if not too heavily coated with flat paint, also work well. Dusty floors or polished floors can be too slippery. Stone, slate or terrazzo are satisfactory - if they are not too smooth or polished.

Show and competition dancers who push the envelope with their routines have different shoes to match these very different floors. Suede-soled shoes help the dancer overcome stickiness. Roughening or dampening the suede can overcome some slipperiness. Composition or rubber-soled shoes can overcome even more slipperiness. But there are limits.

In Search of the Perfect Floor

Surprisingly, Toronto has some of the best dancing floors around. The 1922 vintage Palais Royal on the Lakeshore has one of the last fully sprung ballroom-size dance floors in Canada. As long as they are clean, most of Toronto’s salsa clubs can boast very good floors for dancing. A lot of fun can be found at Ba-ba- luú, Left Bank, Manhattan Fuel (formerly Berlin), El Rancho, Bar One and the unwavy portion of Lula Lounge. All of these floors are wood – either planks or parquet. Bear in mind this list is far from exhaustive.

The Courthouse deserves a special mention. While having the most luxurious venue on the Toronto salsa circuit, it also has the most challenging floor due to its mixed nature. Wood ‘pathways’ criss-cross a stone or slate floor. In a single turn, one’s foot can be nicely placed on the wood while the other foot can slip and slide on the slick stone. If one knows this before going, turns can be altered and some figures dropped to account for the different surfaces.

Ironically, dancers talk about floors only when glaring problems arise. The clues are not obvious. A whispered word here or a furtive warning there are often the only indications of trouble.

Go Out and Have Fun

What does mean for the salsera or salsero who goes out on a club night to salsa? Talk to other dancers about the floor if it seems a little ‘sticky’ or ‘slippery’. A polite word to management may reduce the cleaners’ enthusiasm for that gleaming surface. Perhaps buy a pair of composition-soled shoes. Definitely go back to the basics and learn how to shorten steps and distances with your partner, control turns and be aware while turning and stepping and flitting about. And finally, enjoy each venue for its unique character.