Swimming dressed in a mermaid costume
Mermaiding (also referred to as artistic mermaiding, mermaidry, or artistic mermaid performance) is the practice of wearing, and often swimming in, a costume mermaid tail.
In the beginning of the twentieth century mermaiding was sometimes referred to as water ballet, but it is not currently a term that is commonly used. Mermaiding should not be confused with modern synchronized swimming, although there can be some overlap if a mermaid performance troupe is performing a synchronized routine.
It is difficult to determine exactly where the term "mermaiding" was coined; but some of the first professional freelance mermaids appeared on the world scene around 2004, Hannah Mermaid, Mahina Mermaid, and Mermaid Linden, who were all playing with the term. A little later on, the term was brought to a wider use and community by Iona the Mermaid, co-founder of MerNetwork.com. Newer professional mermaids like the famous Mermaid Elle have made mermaiding more popular and mainstream by performing at celebrity events and featured on TV, music videos and magazines.
Mermaiding is both a profession and a hobby. Professional mermaids will often swim in live, filmed, or photographed productions or shows and can be hired for special events. Nonprofessional enthusiasts swim in tails at their local pools if the pool allows it, lakes, rivers, and seashores, or take part in mermaid-themed photo shoots, birthday parties, or mermaid meetings with other Mers. Mermaiding is popular with all ages and genders. Mermaiding practitioners are sometimes called mermaids, professional mermaids, or occasionally, water ballerinas. Within the community, mermaid or merfolk can be shortened to "mer". Mermaiding is often seen as a form of extreme cosplay due to the nature of crafting the tails and other prosthetics used by practitioners. There are several tail-making companies supplying the community with everything from fabric tails to full SFX prostheses costing thousands of dollars.
History.
Annette Kellerman.
Annette Marie Sarah Kellerman (6 July 1886 – 6 November 1975) was an Australian professional swimmer, vaudeville star, film actress and writer. She was one of the first women to wear a one-piece bathing costume, instead of the then-accepted pantaloons, and inspired others to follow her example. In 1902, Kellerman decided to take her swimming seriously and subsequently won the ladies' 100 yards and mile championships of New South Wales in the record times of 1 minute, 22 seconds and 33 minutes, 49 seconds respectively. In that same year, her parents decided to move to Melbourne, and she was enrolled at Mentone Girls' Grammar School where her mother had accepted a music teaching position. During her time at school, Kellerman gave exhibitions of swimming and diving at the main Melbourne baths, performed a mermaid act at Princes Court entertainment centre and did two shows a day swimming with fish in a glass tank at the Exhibition Aquarium.
In June–July 1903 Kellermann performed sensational high dives in the Coogee scene of Bland Holt's spectacular, "The Breaking of the Drought", at the Melbourne Theatre Royal. She is often credited with inventing the sport of synchronized swimming after her 1917 performance of a water ballet in a glass tank at the New York Hippodrome. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The majority of Kellerman's films had themes of aquatic adventure. She performed her own stunts including diving from ninety-two feet into the sea and sixty feet into a pool of crocodiles. Many times she would play mermaids named Annette or variations of her own name. Her "fairy tale films", as she called them, started with "The Mermaid" (1911), in which she was the first actress to wear a swimmable mermaid costume on film. She designed her own mermaid swimming costumes and sometimes made them herself. Similar designs are still used by The Weeki Wachee Springs Mermaids, including her aquatic fairy costume first introduced in "Queen of the Sea" (1918).
Esther Williams.
Esther Jane Williams (8 August 1921 – 6 June 2013) was an American competitive swimmer and actress. Williams set multiple national and regional swimming records in her late teens as part of the Los Angeles Athletic Club swim team. Unable to compete in the 1940 Summer Olympics because of the outbreak of World War II, she joined Billy Rose's Aquacade, where she took on the role vacated by Eleanor Holm after the show's move from New York City to San Francisco. While in the city, she spent five months swimming alongside Olympic gold medal winner and "Tarzan" star, Johnny Weissmuller. Williams caught the attention of MGM scouts at the Aquacade. After appearing in several small roles, alongside Mickey Rooney in an Andy Hardy film, and future five-time co-star Van Johnson in "A Guy Named Joe", Williams made a series of films in the 1940s and early 1950s known as "aquamusicals", which featured elaborate performances with synchronized swimming and diving. In 1952, Williams appeared in her only biographical role, as Australian swimming star Annette Kellerman in "Million Dollar Mermaid", which went on to become her nickname while at MGM. Williams left MGM in 1956 and appeared in a handful of unsuccessful feature films, followed by several extremely popular water-themed television specials, including one from Cypress Gardens, Florida.
Many of her MGM films, such as "Million Dollar Mermaid" and "Jupiter's Darling", contained elaborately staged synchronized swimming scenes, with considerable risk to Williams. She broke her neck filming a 115 ft dive off a tower during a climactic musical number for the film "Million Dollar Mermaid" and was in a body cast for seven months. She subsequently recovered, although she continued to suffer headaches as a result of the accident. Her many hours spent submerged in a studio tank resulted in ruptured eardrums numerous times. She also nearly drowned after not being able to find the trap door in the ceiling of a tank. The walls and ceiling were painted black and the trap door blended in. Williams was pulled out only because a member of the crew realized the door was not opening.
Weeki Wachee Mermaids.
Located an hour north of Tampa on Florida's Gulf Coast, Weeki Wachee Springs has hosted a mermaid show since 1947. Swimmers, trained by Newton Perry, performed synchronised ballet in the natural springs at the site. The resort was purchased and promoted by the American Broadcasting Co. (ABC) in 1959.
In 2008, Weeki Wachee Springs was incorporated into the State of Florida Park system.
Film.
"Miranda" is a 1948 British comedy film, directed by Ken Annakin and written by Peter Blackmore, who also wrote the play of the same name from which the film was adapted. Denis Waldock provided additional dialogue. A light comedy, the film is about a beautiful and playful mermaid played by Glynis Johns and her effect on Griffith Jones. Googie Withers and Margaret Rutherford are also featured in the film. Glynis Johns and Margaret Rutherford reprised their roles in the 1954 sequel, "Mad About Men". "Miranda" is the story of a fisherman who brings home a mermaid disguised as an invalid in a wheelchair. Her flirting causes some chaos and eventually she returns to the sea.
"Million Dollar Mermaid" (also known as "The One Piece Bathing Suit" in the UK) is a 1952 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer biographical musical film of the life of Australian swimming star Annette Kellerman, played by Esther Williams. It was directed by Mervyn LeRoy and produced by Arthur Hornblow Jr. from a screenplay by Everett Freeman. The music score was by Adolph Deutsch, the cinematography by George J. Folsey and the choreography by Busby Berkeley. "Million Dollar Mermaid" not only became Esther Williams' nickname around Hollywood, but it became the title of her autobiography (New York: Simon &amp; Schuster, 1999), co-written with Digby Diehl. Williams has often called this her favorite film.
Cinema and television post-1980.
"For simplicity's sake, this section focuses on film and shows with live-action swimmers and tails as the main characters. For an exhaustive list of mermaids in media, please see" Mermaids in popular culture.
Cinema
"Splash" (1984): starring Daryl Hannah and Tom Hanks, Hannah played a mermaid who falls in love with a human. She could walk on dry land in human form, but her legs changed into a fish tail whenever she got wet. Much of the movie revolves around her humorous attempts to conceal her true identity from her lover. A made-for-television sequel, "Splash, Too", followed in 1988, starring Amy Yasbeck and Todd Waring. Immensely popular, the film precipitated a surge in popularity of mermaids in general and mermaiding in particular, as it inspired many people to buy tails and get into the water.
Daryl Hannah's mermaid tail was designed and created by Academy Award-winning visual effects artist Robert Short. The tail was fully functional. Hannah swam with the mermaid tail so fast that her safety team could not keep pace with her. According to the DVD documentary, Hannah had been swimming "mermaid" style with her legs bound together since she was a child, due to her fascination with Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid" story. However, by the standards of swimmable mermaid tails, the exceptionally detailed film tail was difficult to remove. For the sake of efficiency, Hannah at first kept it on while the cast had lunch. In the documentary contained on the 20th-anniversary "Splash!" DVD, Tom Hanks recalled how the other cast members would drop French fries over the side of the tank to her as though she were a trained sea mammal, for she could not leave the water while her legs were "shrink-wrapped".
"Mermaid Got Married" (1994): this Hong Kong romantic-comedy tells the story of a school teacher who falls in love with a mermaid who'd rescued him as a young boy. The film stars Asian cinema idols Ekin Cheng, Christy Chung, and Takeshi Kaneshiro. The film is loosely based on "Splash".
"The Thirteenth Year" (1999): a teen learns that his birth mother is a mermaid after he begins to grow fins and slimy scales on his thirteenth birthday.
"Mermaids" (2003): this 2003 television film was directed by Ian Barry and stars Serah D'Laine, Nikita Ager and Australian model Erika Heynatz as a trio of mermaid sisters who band together to avenge their father's death. The film is also known in other languages as "Sereias" (Brazil), "Três Sereias" (Portugal), "Mermaids – Las sirenas" (Spain), "Oi treis gorgones" (Greece), "Seireenisiskokset" (Finland), "Sirènes" (France), and "Sirenas" (Argentina). Some of the tails used in the production have been sold to professional mermaids.
"Aquamarine" (2006): the title character is a mermaid (Sara Paxton) who is washed ashore after a violent storm. She decides to search for true love on land, and makes two good friends (Joanna "JoJo" Levesque and Emma Roberts) along the way. The film, loosely based on a children's book of the same name by Alice Hoffman, and directed by American director Elizabeth Allen, was filmed in Queensland, Australia. There were three different tails used in the production, including an animatronic model that was operated remotely. At least one of the others was a fully swimmable tail worn by the actress.
"" (2011): during his search for the Fountain of Youth, Jack Sparrow encounters several mermaids. This film is included in this list because, like "Splash", it accounted for an increase in mermaid popularity upon its release, and includes a central mermaid character. However, no actual tails were used during filming; they were added during the editing process with CGI. "On Stranger Tides" employed 1,112 shots of computer-generated imagery, which were done by ten visual effects companies. Cinesite visual effects supervisor Simon Stanley-Clamp claimed that the most difficult part was doing the effects in 3D: "Rotoscoping is tricky. Cleaning up plates is double the work, and tracking has to be spot on." The lead companies, with over 300 effects each, were Industrial Light &amp; Magic—responsible for, among others, the mermaids and most water effects—and Moving Picture Company, who created digital ships and environment extensions, such as changing weather and designing cliffs and waterfalls. Filming the mermaids involved eight model-actresses, who portrayed them outside the water, as well as 22 synchronized swimming athletes and a group of stuntwomen, both of whom wore motion capture suits to be later replaced by digital mermaids. Mermaid corpses were depicted by plaster models. The design tried to avoid the traditional representations of mermaids in paintings and literature, instead going for a scaly body with a translucent membrane inspired by both jellyfish and the fabric employed in ballet tutus. To make the mermaids more menacing underwater, the faces of the