click to enlarge
If Flags are a water color painting, Fans are colored pencil illustration.
The flags create large, loose areas of color. Fans, because they are supported by stiff ribs, can create very precise lines in space. Flags are also less dependent on the dancer. Once you get them going they can fly by themselves. Fans, on the other hand, want you to direct their every move. Flags are more forgiving of mistakes than fans are.
Have I scared you off of fans? I didn't mean to. But I know a lot of flaggers who refuse to touch the fans just for the reasons I gave above.
"They feel funny."
"They won't do what I want!"
"They're too hard!!!"
But I also know a lot of flaggers who after a few years of flagging experience came back to try the fans again. All of them found that the second go-round went much better than the first. Not all of them became avid fan dancers (it IS a different sensation) but they found that they could play them after all if they wanted to.
So the number of fan dancers is low compared to flaggers. But I've heard that this is changing. My friends tell me that the number of requests for information on fans is growing. I hope this means that we are coming up to a renaissance for the fans. In experienced hands the fans are infinitely more expressive than flags. They can be manipulated into many more shapes than flags. They can cry, laugh, and throw attitude precisely when and where the dancer wants.
My mentor, Chris Smith, was a fan dancer. When he danced with his fans he could mesmerize an audience. His skills were incredible. He could hang a fan in the air for what seemed like hours. I just wish that I had captured him on video for all new fan dancers to watch. The places that he could push the fans to were breath taking. I was able to take stills of him in action, and you can get a sense of what he was doing. But it's just not the same. He is missed.
