Category:Making Flags

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History

Flag dancing (also dubbed flagging dance or flagging*) has its ancestor in traditional color guard techniques and equipment, and in the 1990's became popular in pockets of urban gay club-culture, following the trend of fan-dancing, in both cases, large and colorful flags or fans are spun around the body, like wings, veils, sails. Somewhat ironically, christian evangelical groups apparently also use the term flagging to denote their use of flags at liturgical celebrations.

Flags are viewed a little more than just "training toys". Even in the burner community, dancing is not considered highly valuable (unless you are a naked and attractive girl) as knowing a lot of very difficult moves with poi, staff and deviations thereof, and performing them correctly.

Equipment

To spin silk flags, it is absolutely necessary to have one or preferably a pair of flags. This is the only item you will need (okay, maybe shoes if it's cold or rough terrain, and clothing if it's in public). Poi manufacturers have just begun to pick up on this artform, making up "poi flags" which are basically strings with triangular sheets of brightly colored nylon sewn to the cord along the longest edge. Also commercially available are color guard flags, which are generally rectangular or triangular flags attached to a long pole. Neither of these is what you want. Great flags have been ruined by adding a cord by which to swing them. Best to avoid the cords and handles and poles altogether.

You will need two identically sized and shaped rectangles of fabric (you can use other shapes as long as both flags are the same, but for weighting purposes, it is easier to explain for rectangles). Silk, lightweight nylon, or any other light non-stretchy material that makes you think "parachute" will work just fine. Lightweight rayon tends to be way too stretchy, and it's essential to choose a woven, not knit fabric. Shirt-weight cotton is a bit too heavy and stiff for any sustained spinning, but you use what you must. You can find some great materials even at the Salvation Army/thrift shop (i.e: square silk scarves). These range from 3-10 bucks. 22.5" x 33" inches is good size to start off with because most commercial bolts of fabric are 45 inches wide, so you can just buy the length you want and split it down the center to get two flags.

You will also need beaded curtain weight, or some substitute. Since you will not be using a pole or a wire, and instead are opting for the more flexible route, you still need to weight down the corner of the flag so it will slice through the air instead of flibberting around like a silk scarf. Beaded weight is basically a fabric tube with heavy beads along its length. Its intended purpose is to hold down the hems of heavy drapes. If you don't have a fabric store with a good upholstery secion handy, try your thrift shop for old heavy drapes that you wouldn't feel bad chopping up. You might even get lucky and find flowy sheer ones, so you can use the material and the weight.

If you absolutely cannot find beaded weight, jewelry weight ball chain is probably good enough, but it's going to hurt if you smack yourself. The length of the weight will be determined by the size of your flag. If you opted to follow my instructions for size above, you just need to buy a length of 145 inches, you may want to allow a bit of room for fraying and mistakes. For each flag, measure the length of the short side, multiply by 3 and add 2.5. This is the number of inches of weight you want. SpinTribe** also has a weight calculator that is very useful.

Construction

Hem one short and one long side of your rectangle. These don't get any weight. Cut your beaded weight next. For one flag, you will need a length which is 2/3 the long side(A), 1/2 the short side(B), 1/4 the short side(C) and 1/2 the long side(D).

       Rough Edge
     ________________________
   R| _________________ (A)  |H
   o|| __________ (D)        |e
   u|||                      |m
   g|||                      |E
   h||(C)                    |d
   E|(B)                     |g
   d|                        |e
   g|                        |
   e|________________________|
            Hem edge

Spread out the silk on a table or other clean flat spot. The basic idea is to roll the silk around the (D) weight, on the longest side. Make sure to have the weight near the corner with the short, unhemmed side, but leave about half and inch of wiggle room. Baste that into place. Then take the (A) weight, lay it on the silk next to (D), roll (A) around, pulling a bit of silk around both weights, then baste this as well. You'll repeat this on the short side, starting with (C), then adding (B). You shoul now hem the parts of the weighted sides that have no weight at the edge, and sew the weights down a bit more securely. Flag one is done, move onto the second. Once you've managed that, you'll have a lovely pair of flags.

Spinning Flags

The first time around, just take one flag in your non-dominant hand. Hold it on the long side, right where the weight goes from two layers to one layer. You can pinch with two fingers, but also try to lay the weight along the heel of your hand, and wrap your fingers around it (golf grip). Give it a swish so that the silk isn't grabbing itself. Now just swing your arm in big lazy cirles. Change speeds, directions, this is your warm up. Switch hands and repeat. You can cross the flag in front of your body to make a figure 8 loop. Swing the flag in a circle so that it comes up when behind you, and down when in front of you. When your hand gets to the top of the circle, swiftly move your hand across and down, to being the next circle on your opposite side.

To weave with flags, you will be wrapping and unwrapping. You are always wrapping the same number of times on the left side, then unwrapping that same number on your right side. It looks beautiful.

Flags are for dancing, and you'll find out that poi tricks require a bit more flexibility and planning, if they can be done at all. At some point, you may notice that for every turn, you must do one turn in the other direction to prevent twisting your silk into a thin, disagreeable rope. With practice, you will stop having to count your turns, and begin to feel them. Once your intuition kicks in, flags become *the* tool for dancing. They limit you in delicious ways, and introduce every plane as an avenue for exploration.

Spin like nobody's watching!