As one of the tester favorites from this past season’s test, the 2024 Faction Dancer 2 turned a lot of heads. This ski returns unchanged except for graphics for this year, keeping the same strong and sturdy energy that skiers have loved for a few seasons now. The main part about this ski is that it is extremely effective at blurring the line between all-mountain and freeride. While some skiers will point to the mid-90's width and claim that it is more versatile, others will argue that it’s plenty wide, floaty, and round to be in the playful freeride realm. Either way you choose to look at it, there’s no denying that this ski is ready to rip. The on-trail performance is quite good for a mid-90's ski and the off-trail versatility stands out among a crowded field of skis in this zone. For most advanced and expert skiers, the Faction Dancer 2 will provide a bit of everything, serving some skiers well as a one-ski quiver, while others will choose to complement it with a wider and/or a narrower offering depending on their chosen application and terrain.

The 2024 Faction Dancer 2 is built using a full poplar wood core. This wood has a nice mix of energy and stability, falling right in line with the philosophy that this ski should offer something for everyone. They also add their full-strength sidewall to the mix that provides a protective barrier in between the sidewall and the core. In addition to adding durability, it also provides a bit of stiffness as well, functioning as a de-facto vertical laminate. Thick edges go well with the dual-span titanal laminates in adding a bunch of metal to the mix. These thin metal layers offer stiffness and stability for skiers who value speed and prefer a more aggressive and energetic ski style. They also provide grip, stiffening the ski from a torsional perspective. In the 182, this all adds up to a weight of 1900 grams per ski—light enough to be considered agile, while containing all the necessary ingredients for hard-charging skiing with high levels of confidence.

The argument for a ski at 96 mm underfoot being super useful is not a bad one—there are a lot of skiers out there who would be perfectly happy on this shape in any and all conditions and terrain. The good part is that you don’t have to think too much about it—it's a natural and easy shape to ski. That said, it doesn’t exactly fit in with either fat or narrow skis, getting lost somewhere in the middle. Again, for most skiers, this mid-range is a great place to be for a variety of ski styles. The ski provides a 19-meter turn radius that allows for both longer format GS style turns as well as drifty and smeary turns when the snow gets softer. Dancer provides width-appropriate rocker that seems to correspond perfectly with the terrain and conditions in which you find yourself, leading to an innate and natural feeling whenever turning on this ski.

While advanced and expert skiers will be able to glean the most performance out of the Dancer 2, that doesn’t mean that an intermediate looking to progress will be overmatched by it. Quite the opposite, if you’re improving and are somewhat confident, the ski will help your skills progress to the next level. The metal is thin, the ski is relatively light, and the turn shape is manageable enough to provide support rather than demand for progressing skiers.