The Barbershop “Fan” Move…..Is it Overrated?
Unfortunately, the answer to this question is both yes and no. Sometimes doing a “barbershop fan” move where everyone fans their outside hand/arm up and out to the side at the end of a song or at a place where you are emphasizing or trying to achieve the lift is what works best for that moment. I just tire of it being used all of the time because that’s the easy or expected thing to do.
What I propose is, not a revolt on the concept all together, but a way to find other options so that the fan doesn’t just become the barbershop default move for every lift, phrase climax, or end of a song.
How can we achieve this? It’s pretty simple, don’t try to reinvent the wheel, just come up with some other options. I’ll try to describe a few:
• Bring the outside hand up and towards the director in the center on the penultimate, or next to last, chord. Then on the last chord, you can fan around and open creating more of a visual effect than just the standard fan.
• Experiment with filling your own space instead of having to reach out to make your point. By this, I mean have the hands free and moving with one or both up and away from the body. You can have it be subtle like you’re just naturally moving that way, or choreograph a move where everyone’s hands come up. Then, for the “lift”, or dramatic effect, bring the hands back down to your sides while filling up that space between your body with your knees, chest, shoulders and head pushing through the hands as they come down. The hands have to have and energy or push to them or it looks weak. With the right tension and drama worked between the hands and the body it can be very effective.
• Instead of doing a move with the hands, just have everyone step forward on their outside foot to grow using their knees. Small move, but done correctly it adds great drama. (This move can be done in reverse for a really quiet moment. If you do the move subtly you can achieve an effect where the audience “senses” that the moment is pulled in and dramatic, but won’t actually notice that you moved purposefully)
• Do the stepping move just listed above, but add a slight turn “down the tiles”*. If everyone really hones in on the director at that “chorus stance” angle and then slowly turns out to open up more to the audience it is a good visual effect. Of course you want to keep your director in your peripheral vision. Nothing ruins a good ballad like a poorly executed cut-off.
Anyway, you get the idea. There are lots of ways to achieve these very effecting alternatives to “the fan”, or barbershop move 101 as we call it in my chorus. Just find a few that work well for your and your group and mix it in with your other choreography and your fans to add interest to what you are doing.
Your audience will appreciate the variety in your performance.
*Different people call “down the tiles” different things. I am referring to the move where all members face completely forward instead of in the natural curve of the risers.