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From DallasVoice.com Life+Style Lead Story Tie-die master and silk-spinning stud Phillip Bryan unites East and West Coast styles at the Texas Flagger Weekend
It’s a trend that gained momentum after the club-kid movement finally overdosed and collapsed. As the ’90s petered out, a new move started cropping up on gay dance floors — flagging. As disco music pulses, dancers wave colorful patterns of poly-chiffon and swirl them in the air like pizza dough. Flagging is actually a hybrid: A marriage of poi juggling (the New Zealand art of swinging rope-balls) and fan dancing. The art form first caught Phillip Bryan’s eye at the 1998 Gay Games in Amsterdam. A second-degree black belt, Bryan was competing in martial arts. During the Opening Ceremonies, he saw a guy flagging during the athletes’ procession and had his friend capture it on video. “It was only about 10 seconds, and I watched it over and over trying to figure out how he did it,” Bryan remembers. Now, 10 years later, Bryan is teaching others at the fifth annual Texas Flagger Weekend. Bryan, who works as a freelance Web developer, helped create FlaggerCentral.com, a networking site. It’s also the name of the group that’s hosting the Flagger Weekend where participants can take part in more than 15 workshops — from learning to create tie-dye spirals to embarking on the art of aerial silks (acrobatic feats you usually see at Cirque du Soleil). Each night, flaggers will bust out their new skills at dance parties. The weekend will be a cultural summit of sorts. According to Bryan, Xavier Caylor will impart a New York flagging style and George Jagatic will teach the West Coast fashion. Bryan explains that the East Coast version is more like modern dance choreography while the San Francisco school is more meditative. Bryan’s expertise is in making the awesome spinning fabrics. His workshops are about designing and creating flags. And Bryan can explain practically every pleat and textile pattern of tie-dyed fabrics and how sewing weights into the design helps the flags’ “flow.” What’s the difference between a good flag and one that looks like crap? “Sometimes they can be too complicated. Often, it’s a simple design that looks beautiful. Sometimes color combinations don’t work well. Like red and green can create a mucky brown. So [my classes] are about color theory and making designs that look good in motion,” he explains. Bryan says regional styles develop because flaggers often team up and swap skills. And there is a Texas style. “In Dallas, I tend to see a lot of people work with the silk and their body. So the style has a real masculinity,” he says. Bryan is painfully modest, but maybe he’s the one responsible for this Dallas style — especially with his martial arts background. He often gets tagged as a “muscleboy flagger,” a term he doesn’t particularly care for. “I’m very physical. And when the music is pumping hard, I feel the energy; I move my legs. It’s very kinesthetic — kind of like when you go to the gym and you feel this ‘pump.’ I feel the muscles in my body. And I feel that the flag is an extension of my body. Then I really connect… I go with the flow and just feel the silk touching my body,” he explains. “When people watch my flag and hear the music, it’s like putting the sound to a visual.” TALK LIKE A FLAGGER Here are some terms culled from the Texas Flagger Weekend handbook. Flaggot: Pejorative used by a non-flagger for a flagger. Often by those who would secretly like to try spinning, but who are afraid to appear uncool in front of friends. Flag-ghurl! A male flagger who enjoys performing in high heels, hot shorts and flags. Flag moth: A non-flagger who is drawn to the beauty of spinning silk, but unaware of the dangers of spinning weights. This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition July 4, 2008. © Copyright by DallasVoice.com |
