There is that. A really fast floor can make certain steps in tango awkward. I keep a pair of dance sneakers that I don't use very often, but if I'm practicing tango and having trouble with my feet sliding, I'll put them on. Kind of OT but: Have any of you ever seen a flat floor? I used to work in a spacecraft processing facility that had one. Everything sits on top of air bearings. When you need to move it it, you plug in an air line, and then you can move a 10,000 lb. fixture by yourself. Although if you get it going, it's hard to stop...
I had my first really bad experience with a floor that was too slick at my last comp...usually the floors are fine for me...sometimes too tacky in humid areas of the country but a bit powder does the trick ...but at my last comp, the floor was so slick on smooth day that people were falling...and just about every time that I had to do any spinning or ronde's , I felt as though I was going to fall, it was horrible...and I have no idea why...it was fine the next two days
One of the studios where I practice is really slippery. Smooth isn't so bad most of the time, but latin you can barely stand. Although practicing there it is always a pleasant surprise at competitions when its not as slippery and I have really awesome balance.
My studio's floor is very fast, and I notice the same thing as smidra - when I get to a comp, the sticky floors can be a bit of a relief, suddenly I am super-balanced.
The powders you can use are ... ok I suppose. The problem tends to be that the powder isn't confined to just your shoes. Any baby powder / corn meal you dust on your shoes will end up all over the floor. Any rosin or tacky powder will transfer to the floor as well. These footprints you leave behind are DANGEROUS. Imagine the next poor soul who is dancing along, feeling a slow floor and dancing accordingly, who then steps right into your baby powder foot print which is unimaginably fast, and they end up flat on the floor on their backside. Or the person who tears their ACL because they tried to spin on a fast floor but hit your antiskid powder foot print. Not cool.
