Flagging dance

This article possibly contains original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations. Statements consisting only of original research should be removed. (May 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Flagging dance" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (April 2008) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Flagging dance is a performing art form often called "Flag Dancing", "Spin Flagging", "Flow Flagging", "flagging" and "Rag Spinning", but more commonly referred to as "Colorguard (Guard)". The flagging dance is the undulation, spinning and waving of flags in a rhythmic fashion with music. Practitioners of this form of performance art and dance are usually referred to as "Flaggers" and "Flag Dancers."

Although spinning Flags resembles the spinning of Poi, it is not a form of Poi. Poi originated with the Māori people of New Zealand while Flagging derived from Gay culture. Both developed independently from each other. The exact origins of Flagging are unclear, but it is thought to have started in gay clubs in the late 1970s and early 1980s.