Fan dance
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A fan dance is a dance performed with one or more fans. This form has been adapted in various countries. The Korean fan dance, for example, evolved from Joseon Dynasty court dances and remains a popular form of traditional Korean dance.
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, esthetic appreciation of grace and beauty, and for simple astonishment at the virtuosity of the illusionary spell that is cast.
As of 2004, no exponent of the fan dance has surpassed, at least in fame, 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.