The only element more quintessential to a dance studio than the mirrors are the barres, making these two essential items the focus of many studio owners. Regardless of where your studio is, how many students you have, and what types of dance you teach, you need top-notch dance studio mirrors before opening your doors to the public.
Quality Studio Mirrors
While many mirrors are made of glass, it is important to steer clear of glass in the dance studio. Specially-developed mirrors that are 100% shatter-proof are the best way to protect your students in the event of the mirror suffering a blow. While glass mirrors may be cheaper than the engineered glassless ones, a high-quality dance mirror should be non-glass.
Glassless mirrors have additional advantages over traditional mirrors made of glass:
- Glassless mirrors are lightweight, allowing for easier and less costly installation.
- Glassless mirrors don't bounce sound around like glass does.
- Glassless mirrors are easy to clean, without the streaking of glass mirrors.
When choosing a mirror for your dance studio, remember that this important item should be of high quality for a few different reasons:
- Safety: A mirror that can shatter is a hazard to every person who enters the room. Ensure that the mirror will stay intact even if it suffers a blow.
- Genuine reflection: Because mirrors are an important learning and teaching tool, the reflected image should be undistorted and clear. Steer clear of acrylic mirrors, whose reflections are not of a high enough quality for dancers' fine art.
- Ease of installation: Consider the type of mount you want for your barres and make sure that the mirrors you choose can have barre mounts integrated if you want barres on the wall of the studio where the mirror will be.
Buying and Installing Studio Mirrors
Purchase your dance studio mirrors from a specialized company, either in mirrors or in dance studio equipment. If the option is available, it's convenient and easy if the manufacturer or distributor installs the mirrors for you as well, usually guaranteeing that the mirrors are installed properly.
Alvas
Mats, Mats, Mats
Mats,Mats, Mats specializes in exercise and athletic equipment, including the sale of mylar mirrors perfect for a dance or yoga studio. Available in many sizes and mounts, consider also purchasing the plastic cover to protect the mirror when it is not in use. Because these mirrors can be damaged by touch, the plastic cover is a good idea for protecting it.
Hudson Mirror
Hudson Mirror offers very thin, and very light, glassless mirrors in three different types of mounts. In addition to their standard mirrors, check out their special effects mirrors, such as the scrim mirror, used in theater to create a bleeding-through image (two-way mirror).
Lite Mirror
Lite Mirror has glassless panels that you can put together to create one wall of mirror, but also makes custom sizes, as well as mirrors with two perpendicular panel as well as tri-fold mirrors. Try out their mirrored ceiling tiles for another special effect.
Importance of Mirrors in the Dance Studio
When learning to dance, it's important to be able to see exactly what your body is doing in order to learn proper technique. In addition, you should be able to see what dancers to your right and left are doing and how they are doing it, which is very important when learning a new routine or a new step. Mirrors serve many purposes for budding and professional dancers alike, from keeping everyone on the same rhythm to making sure that your own arm is as straight or as angled as everyone else's.
Dance studio mirrors are important for teachers, judges, and classroom assistants. Studios without adequate mirrors allow students to hide in the back without being seen; a studio where one wall is fully covered with a mirror makes it such that every person in the room can be seen in the mirror, and teachers can monitor and correct all the dancers in the class.
Outfitting Your Studio
While mirrors are an expensive element for your studio, they are also vital for learning dancers. Because they are so important, it is critical to purchase glassless, shatterproof mirrors that produce reliable, high-quality reflections so that your students, teachers, and parents when visiting, can all see how developed the students' technique is, and how gracious their artistry has become.
