Fan dance

Type of dance including fans Michelle L'amour at the Miss Exotic World Pageant, 2007. Photo Michael Albov In the West, a fan dance (i.e., a dance 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. Fan Dancer known to exhibit his own handcrafted toys on Dance on the Pier stages since 1991 is seen here taking another spin in 2016. 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