Veil fans, what's gives?!

Aniseteph

New member
I agree, the "Spanish" aspect is bogus. I've seen people do cool stuff with them, but IMO best when they are used as a prop in their own right (if that makes sense) - not quite like a veil and definitely not like a fan.

I don't think it's "authentic" either, but like Isis Wings it's sort of adopted by Westernised belly dance. Other types of fan in belly dance usually make me cringe - it HAS to be fusion to find anything to do with the fan, which usually means half-assed fake flamenco or belly-burlesque (shudder). :confused:
 

Eshta

New member
Yes, it was an issue I'd clocked very early on, that the veil fan isn't even a distant cousin to the flamenco fan, and any thoughts of even trying to emulate that in any way were discarded pretty quickly. You can snap a flamenco fan open and shut in ways you simply can't with the veil fan, and where the veil fan really needs to keep moving for effect, the flamenco fan can be static, used to frame poses, etc. You also can't twist the veil fan like you can the flamenco fan as the veil fan works best if you keep it flat.

So what we discarded the flamenco element in favour of "summer holiday Spanish" influence :lol:! I think the experiment was really about doing something upbeat and dynamic with them rather than the slow wafty stuff that most people seem to be doing at the moment.
 

Mosaic

Super Moderator
The veil fans are definitely from traditional Chinese dances, I have seen them used in ME dance and they did look lovely.
~Mosiac
 
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