In the West, a fan dance (i.e., a

dance Dance is an The arts, art form, consisting of sequences of body movements with aesthetic and often Symbol, symbolic value, either improvised or purposefully selected. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

performed with fans) may be an erotic dance performance, traditionally by a woman, but not exclusively. Beyond eroticism it is a form of musical interpretation. The performer, sometimes entirely nude or apparently so, dances while manipulating two or more large fans that can be constructed from many different materials including ostrich feathers, silks, velvet, sequined and organza fabrics. The unifying factor in all is the spins, or fan staves, that give form to this prop. 2016pridefandancer

In the 1970s gay men removed the solid pin at the center of the fan and replaced it with knotted string allowing for a fluid curvaceous movement. This disco art has been seen in San Francisco's Trocadero (perhaps first before the East's Paradise Garage), New York's Roseland Ballroom plus numerous circuit parties from Corbett Reynolds 1996 “Jungle Red” Party in Cleveland to the White and Winter Parties of Miami and London's 1998 Red Heart's Ball. More difficult to construct (and manipulate) than the

flags A flag is a piece of fabric (most often rectangular) with distinctive colours and design. It is used as a symbol, a signalling device, or for decoration. The term ''flag'' is also used to refer to the graphic design employed, and flags have ...

commonly used today, there are but a handful of artists, male and female, who occasionally exhibit this style of dance. The 1997 and 2016 Dance on the Pier images both give a closer look at a pair of medium-sized fans caught in fast motion. At times these fans travel in a simple elliptical pattern seen as a circle by the audience while further into the choreography one might see a perfect windmill, helicopter blades, a set of wings or even Carmen's skirt. Hiding the body to evade morality codes does not factor into this reinterpretation on what a fan dance might be, but they do stand as another symbolic protest to the fact that homosexuals were not permitted to dance together in public or private spaces in New York City for decades. To see a tribe of these dancers together is poetry in motion. Out of the Darkness, an annual AIDS remembrance event every December 1st hosted by

AREA Area is the measure of a region's size on a surface. The area of a plane region or ''plane area'' refers to the area of a shape or planar lamina, while '' surface area'' refers to the area of an open surface or the boundary of a three-di ...

, GMHC and Heritage of Pride, sponsored by the Keith Haring Foundation, has included such a tribe of fan and flag dancers as opening and closing performers for the evenings ceremonies many times noting in their program that these are ritual dances done upon a person's death. It is also a dance seen at a child's first birthday celebration of life where people remember all the children who did not survive those early months as bodies adjust to living outside the womb. In the UK, the fan dance has also been used in the finals of the Miss Nude UK 2000 competition and for The Windmill in

Soho SoHo, short for "South of Houston Street, Houston Street", is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Since the 1970s, the neighborhood has been the location of many artists' lofts and art galleries, art installations such as The Wall ...

where it replaced the tradition of nude tableaux which has since been replaced by table dancing. In 1998 Thelma Houston had 40 fan and flag dancers accompany her off the gangplank of the Queen of Hearts paddle wheel boat onto the stage at Chelsea Piers for the Dance on Manhattan fundraiser.

Gloria Gaynor Gloria Fowles (born September 7, 1943), known professionally as Gloria Gaynor, is an American singer, best known for the disco era hits "I Will Survive" (1978), "I Have a Right, Let Me Know (I Have a Right)" (1979), "I Am What I Am (Broadway mus ...

did similar the year prior with 16 men. Loleatta Holloway danced with just one man at the third of these annuals.

Movies and TV

In 1957 in the Perry Mason TV series, the last episode of 1957 was ''"The Case of the Fan-Dancer's Horse"''. This is Episode 15 of Season 1. This episode contains two scenes with fan dancing. In an episode of the Australian TV series '' Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries'' set in the 1920s the protagonist, private detective Phryne Fisher, goes undercover as a fan dancer in a gentleman's club (Series 2, Episode 1 "Murder Most Scandalous"). The 1963 film '' Gypsy'' is a musical about Gypsy Rose Lee a noted fan dancer. The 1983 film '' The Right Stuff'', has an extended scene featuring an actress playing Sally Rand performing a fan dance. This movie is about the Mercury Seven, the military pilots who were selected to be the

astronaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a List of human spaceflight programs, human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spa ...

s for Project Mercury, the first

human spaceflight Human spaceflight (also referred to as manned spaceflight or crewed spaceflight) is spaceflight with a crew or passengers aboard a spacecraft, often with the spacecraft being operated directly by the onboard human crew. Spacecraft can also be ...

by the United States. In the 1989 film Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, in order to distract the guards Uhura performs a fan dance. ''

The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening, James L. Brooks and Sam Simon for the Fox Broadcasting Company. It is a Satire (film and television), satirical depiction of American life ...

'' episode "Bart After Dark" has belly dancer/showgirl Shauna "Princess Kashmir" Tipton doing a fan dance at Maison Derriere.

References

{{Authority control Erotic dance Ventilation fans Concert dance

Movies and TV

See also

References