Shawn (Mommie Queerest / Momster)
"I guess the true essence of flagging starts back in middle school and high school for me. I always enjoyed dancing. I probably went to most of the school dances that were given, but even back then, I never really felt like I was expressing myself fully. I felt like there was an energy or movement or something that I couldn't quite express.

While in college, I visited San Francisco. At one of the clubs, I saw someone up on a stage doing something. I couldn't quite tell what was going on. I went closer and realized that there were several people doing the same thing. I danced near the stage all night mesmerized. A few years later, I went back to San Francisco for a vacation. I went back to the same club and there these guys were again. Doing the same fantastic thing, that I had seen a few years before. I finally went up to a guy when he was taking a break and asked what it was that they were doing. He told me it was called flagging/fanning. He told me a little about it, and there I stood the rest of the night, entranced watching the way the fabric would catch the light and play with the music.

After college, I moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota. I had been there a couple of years when a big party was being advertised. It was called the Solar party. It was being called a little circuit party. I wasn't quite sure what that meant at that point, but it sounded like fun. So I bought my ticket and went to the party. I was amazed at the music and the time that they had taken to decorate the place. Partway through the night, two performers came out and began to flag. I was determined at that point that I was going to talk and or beg with one of them to teach me how. I watched every single move they made. Each movement was perfectly in line with the music and lights. I went up to the girl, Molly and asked if she would show me how to use them. She simply said, "I need a break. You can play with them if you want to." I was ecstatic! I took the flags and began to spin them. I had watched her so intently earlier that I figured out how to spin them forward.

The summer of 1998 was the flowering of my flagging. After my first time flagging, I had found the extra or hidden movement that I had been sensing, but had not been able to grasp. I now feel like I am fully expressing my body and soul when I hear the music. The more I flag, the more I reach a state of euphoria. When I am at party, and I begin to flag, I transform into a completely different person or is it that I become more of my true self? I don't know. All I know, is that for me the true essence of flagging is the euphoria I reach within myself as I start to spin the flags and my soul takes flight."

Brendan (Darla Scarlet)
"I started flagging because it was fun, and my best friend Shawn encouraged me. I practiced a lot at first; it wasn't easy for me to learn. Since November 1999 I've performed at concerts, parties, and clubs. I love it most when I get to flag with my friends Ottie, Mark, Eric, and Shawn. That's when it's ultimate!"

Ottie (Odessa Contessa, O Mo, Devious Mischievous)
"I first discovered flagging one night at the Saloon (a club here in MPLS). I'm not quite sure whom it was that was twirling at the time, but I do remember being taken totally on a journey from which I've never come back (obviously). Whenever someone was flagging, I was sure to be jockeying for the best view. Little did I know that it's just as transcendental to be inside them (sometimes even more so) as well as watching them. The magic that happens when the music lifts you up and colors assail you is indescribable. About a year later that I took up flagging myself and I've been doing it for about 2.5 years. My very first mentor was Brendan, a very accomplished flagger I can watch for hours. Also during my fledgling time as a flagger, I've had the great honor to have tutelage from Momster, the most amazing flagger I've ever had the privilege to know. Momster has been an indispensable resource (both from tips he's given and just studying his fluid movements). My skill with the cloth was limited for about a year until I started having breakthroughs with certain patterns and then it was much easier for me to progress. Marcia has been a very patient cohort, never tiring to show me things she has learned (of which she picks up with amazing speed). Flagging is more than a circuit party activity to me. I consider flagging as important as ballet, or any other dance style. My fellow flaggers mean everything to me and I'm honored to be a part of the flagging community and Perpetual Motion. I've had many benefits from flagging: physical fitness (one hell of a shoulder workout!), Camaraderie, and an outlet for expression. I am the flagger I am today because of the wonderful circle of flaggers I've been adopted into and am willing to share any of the knowledge to anyone who has the fervor to learn that I do."

Mark (Marsha Fields / M Wig)
"Welcome to my crazy world of the flag obsessed. Our group calls it "getting bitten". And I've been bitten, BAD. It's like when your shoulders and arms are dead tired but you keep on going anyway. Trapped in some altered state of fabric. Where the music flows through your body, out your arms and into the flags. I freakin love it!

I've been involved with flying fabric since high school. My girlfriend was in the marching band color guard. During the summers of marching she taught me some basic flag maneuvers. (A guy interested in color guard, should have know something was a little queer about that.) Every year the band went to the Drum Corps International show in Stillwater, MN. The shows were amazing and the visuals are still an inspiration to me and my flagging today.

I'd like to thank my flag parents Shawn and Brendan. For grabbing my attention, putting me in a trance, and later teaching me how to do that. I'd like to give a shout out to my peeps, Miss Odessa and Miss Badoo. Without you girls this wouldn't be any fun. To all my flag brothers and sisters. Having fun and hanging out is what this flag thing is all about."

Erik (Erika Bad Doo)
Check back soon for BIO. She's busy fixin' her hair...

Adam
"I started flagging in the beginning of 2001. I was clubbing and dancing a lot, and ran into an old friend one night at Seven, a club in Dallas. He was flagging. It took me be surprise cause he is a 6'4" towering burly bear of a guy, and he was having the time of his life. We got to talking about it, and he ended up giving me my first pair that night. I started joining him and three others every Sunday night at that club to practice. I just fell in love with it. It allows me to be creative in a very unusual way, and it is such a nice way to escape reality for a while, at the same time enjoying good music, atmosphere, and friends."