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In the West, a fan dance (i.e., a dance performed with fans) may be an
erotic dance An erotic dance is a dance that provides erotic entertainment and whose objective is the stimulation of erotic or sexual thoughts or actions in viewers. Erotic dance is one of several major dance categories based on purpose, such as ceremo ...
performance, traditionally by a woman, but not exclusively. Beyond eroticism it is a form of musical interpretation. The performer, sometimes entirely
nude Nudity is the state of being in which a human is without clothing. The loss of body hair was one of the physical characteristics that marked the biological evolution of modern humans from their hominin ancestors. Adaptations related to h ...
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 are the spins, or fan staves, that give form to this prop. 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 Corbett may refer to: * List of Corbetts (mountains), 222 mountains in Scotland between , with prominence over * Corbett, Oregon, a community in the United States * Corbett Award, US award for athletics administrators * Corbett (surname), people w ...
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 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 quantity that expresses the extent of a region on the plane or on a curved 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 su ...
,
GMHC The GMHC (formerly Gay Men's Health Crisis) is a New York City–based non-profit, volunteer-supported and community-based AIDS service organization whose mission statement is to "end the AIDS epidemic and uplift the lives of all affected." Hist ...
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 persons 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 Miss (pronounced ) is an English language honorific typically used for a girl, for an unmarried woman (when not using another title such as " Doctor" or "Dame"), or for a married woman retaining her maiden name. Originating in the 17th century, i ...
2000 competition and for The Windmill in
Soho Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century. The area was develo ...
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 Chelsea Piers is a series of piers in Chelsea, Manhattan, Chelsea, on the West Side (Manhattan), West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Located to the west of the West Side Highway (Eleventh Avenue (Manhattan), Eleventh Avenue) and Hudson Ri ...
for the Dance on Manhattan fundraiser.
Gloria Gaynor Gloria Gaynor (née Fowles; born September 7, 1943) is an American singer, best known for the disco era hits " I Will Survive" (1978), " Let Me Know (I Have a Right)" (1979), " I Am What I Am" (1983), and her version of " Never Can Say Goodbye" ...
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 The Romani (also spelled Romany or Rromani , ), colloquially known as the Roma, are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group, traditionally nomadic itinerants. They live in Europe and Anatolia, and have diaspora populations located worldwide, with si ...
'' 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 Sally Rand (born Helen Gould Beck; April 3, 1904 – August 31, 1979) was an American burlesque dancer, vedette, and actress, famous for her ostrich feather fan dance and balloon bubble dance. She also performed under the name Billie Beck ...
performing a fan dance. This movie is about the
Mercury Seven The Mercury Seven were the group of seven astronauts selected to fly spacecraft for Project Mercury. They are also referred to as the Original Seven and Astronaut Group 1. Their names were publicly announced by NASA on April 9, 1959; these seve ...
, 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 human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally r ...
s for
Project Mercury Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States, running from 1958 through 1963. An early highlight of the Space Race, its goal was to put a man into Earth orbit and return him safely, ideally before the Soviet U ...
, the first human spaceflight by the United States.


See also

* Faith Bacon, who performed fan dances in the 1920s *
Sally Rand Sally Rand (born Helen Gould Beck; April 3, 1904 – August 31, 1979) was an American burlesque dancer, vedette, and actress, famous for her ostrich feather fan dance and balloon bubble dance. She also performed under the name Billie Beck ...
, who popularized fan dance in the 1930s *
Michelle L'amour Michelle L'amour (born April 15, 1980) is an American neo-burlesque performer who grew up in Orland Park, Illinois. In 2006, she performed stripteases on NBC's ''America's Got Talent ''America's Got Talent'' (often abbreviated as ''AGT' ...
*
Flagging dance Flagging dance is a performing art form often called "Flag Dancing", "Spin Flagging", "Flow Flagging", "Color Guard" and "Rag Spinning", but more commonly referred to as "Flagging". Specifically, flagging dance is the undulation, spinning and ...


References

{{Authority control Erotic dance Ventilation fans Concert dance