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Glite Dictionary
💃 Suggestive solo dance 👯 Graceful group dance
fan dance

fan dance

6.8
A dance in which dancers move fans in slow graceful ways for a show or celebration
  • noun
translation icon : danza de abanicos
  • The annual festival featured a stunning fan dance, where performers twirled gracefully while using fans to enhance their choreography.

Examples

  • At the cultural gathering, the highlight was a mesmerizing fan dance that combined traditional music with beautiful choreography.

  • In exchange, a Siamese woman teaches Anna a traditional fan dance.

    Academic text (2012)

  • During the performance, the dancers captivated the audience with their elegant fan dance that showcased intricate movements and flowing fabrics.

Synonyms

sinuous dance
vsfan dance
6.7

A dance with slow, smooth, curving movements that look graceful

uses handheld props to create graceful flowing movements

How Graceful

ballet
240 3.3
fan dance
6.8
stomp
14 4.8

Surface Forms

fan dance singular
fan dances plural

Morphology

fanned + dance

The meaning is directly compositional: combining 'fan' (a handheld prop or something arranged in a fan shape) with 'dance' yields a dance using fans. This is a straightforward, cross-linguistically common noun + noun composition, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words will readily infer the meaning.

Etymology

Fan dance comes from traditional dances where people move folding or paper fans in smooth, flowing patterns to make pretty shapes. So it now means a dance in which performers use fans as 'props' to create graceful movement.