Video Review: Beginning Fan Dance with Michelle L'Amour

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Michelle L'Amour's Beginning Fan Dance

Michelle L'Amour performed a landmark tribute to Sally Rand at The Burlesque Hall of Fame Striptease Reunion in Las Vegas in 2007.



Who wouldn't want to learn fan dance techniques from Michelle?

She begins with a recommendation of types of fans to use, then clearly explains the theatrical definition of a reveal, and demonstrates how to hold the fans and how to think of them as an extension of yourself and as a costume. She breaks down a graceful walk and sprinkles the video with dos and don'ts that apply to any kind of dance performance. She talks about staging and what the audience can see as well as showing fan movement techniques.

Michelle's onstage charm translates beautifully into teaching. She has confidence and warmth as a teacher, and her voice is as easy on the ear as her body is on the eye (her posterior is known as "The Ass that Goes Pow!" for good reason). Technically, the video is well-staged, with gorgeous red and black tones, and with conversational clips of her cut in with the full-body movement framing.

Michelle L'Amour
Above: One of my favorite photos of Michelle, from her myspace.

I did my first ostrich feather fan dance onstage at the Cheetah III during the Battle of the Cheetah Girls in the early 1990s (somewhere between 1991 and 1994, I'm not sure), and I really could have used this video. There was no burlesque scene and I had nothing to go on except for having seen Venus DeLight and Vanna Lace do fan dances in other strip joints, exactly twice in my life. I'm so glad new performers today have a chance to get some game right away by learning directly from experienced performers!

Michelle L'Amour Teaching at the New York School of Burlesque
Above: From behind, Michelle teaching in New York.

One of the best parts of being a burlesque teacher has been collaborating with other burlesque teachers. I had the good fortune of taking fan dance classes with Dirty Martini and Miss Indigo Blue, and now, through this video, with Michelle L'Amour. In every instance I learned several things I could use. Michelle has been a spectacular pleasure to work with--I learned a lot about demonstrating the bump and grind using "The L'Amour Method" when she co-produced classes with me here in New York, and I learned a lot about finessing a fan dance from this video, even though I already knew quite a bit about fan dancing. When I see other dancers break down the fan dance in detail, it is surprising how differently various performers use fans! I recommend this as well as her Boa Technique video, for beginners, experienced performers, and, dare I say it, fans.

If you live in Paris, March is your lucky month! Michelle is teaching her fan and boa workshops at Agence Dancefloor, 10 rue de Valmy, Montreuil - Métro : St Mandé Tourelle Ligne 1.

Michelle's Website

Comments

Anonymous said…
I took her mini fan dance class at Tease O Rama this year and have been meaning to buy this video. She really breaks it down and makes it simple. Great teacher, very warm and sweet.
March 14, 2008 at 12:22 PM
Sugar Mae B. said…
I just recieved Michelle's fan dance and boa techniques dvds. I found the fan dance one to be super helpful, since I'm trying to get an act together and I couldn't figure out how to fix some of the mistakes I was making. She made things a lot easier for me, instead of my learning the hard way. Also, I the demonstration was super cute...opened my eyes to how creative I could really make a fan dance.
March 20, 2008 at 12:17 AM
Glamourpuss said…
Saw Michelle perform the Sally Rand tribute in London last night - she was wonderful.

Puss
March 20, 2008 at 7:26 AM
RiRi SynCyr said…
where can one purchase her "fan" tastic dvds? I perused her site a bit, and couldn't find any info.
March 27, 2008 at 10:21 PM
Jo Weldon's New York School of Burlesque Blog said…
If you can't find them on her website, try ostrich.com.
March 28, 2008 at 1:36 AM
Unknown said…
Not too long ago, my 85 year old Dad shared a memory from his youth with me....
When the World's Fair was in NY many many moons ago, he went there with a bunch of other Boy Scouts... they snuck into Sally Rand's show there.
I asked him what he though of it, first comment was that you didn't really see that much and it was fairly tame... second thing was that it was one of the sexiest things he'd ever seen, even to this day.
April 11, 2008 at 6:16 PM
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