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In the West, a fan dance is often an erotic dance performance, traditionally by a woman. The performer, either entirely nude or apparently so, dances while moving two large fans, typically constructed from ostrich feathers. The essence of the choreography is suggestion, limiting the parts of the body exposed to the audience while focusing attention on illusions of exposure. Performers often evoke illusions of:

having already seen what had never been exposed,
not being able to shift one's gaze fast enough to see what seems surely to be presently exposed, or
being aware of currently "seeing" what in fact is not exposed to be seen.

A fan dance can be viewed for erotic stimulation, aesthetic appreciation of grace and beauty, and for simple amazement of the skill of the illusion.

As of 2004, no fan dancer has been more famous than Sally Rand, who popularized it in the 1930s, remained the symbol of it throughout the middle of the 20th century, and continued to perform it beyond the age of 70.

In the UK, the fan dance has been used in the finals of the Miss Nude UK 2000 competition and in The Windmill in Soho where it replaced the tradition of nude tableaux and has since been replaced by table dancing. There have been claims that the latter has exclusive rights to it although it has also been seen at the Whitehall Theatre.

[edit] Fan Dancing's Evolution

In the 1960s, many gay men took great inspiration from the classic art of fan dancing, and created their own form of fan dancing, called alternatively flagging dance, flag dancing, fanning or fan spinning. In the late 1990's fan dancing also became incorporated into fire dancing. The style of fire fan design can range from being fixed (rigid) to folding, and with or without metal blades between the ribs of the fan.

[edit] See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Michelle L'amour's fan dance

[edit] References

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