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The bubble dance is an erotic dance developed by Sally Rand. This was an alternative to the striptease. The dancer (supposedly naked) dances with a huge bubble to make some interesting poses.

In one cartoon in the Looney Tunes series, called Hollywood Steps Out, a character based on Rand ("Sally Strand") is seen performing her bubble dance. She appears to be wearing only a bubble in front of her, no clothing at all. Her bubble glows a very bright white, and it looks as though her skin and the bubble are the same color. With the bubble, it makes her look like she's glowing. In the end, she lifts up her bubble to reveal the illegal parts of her body (which the screen rises up to prevent the cartoon's viewers from seeing them) and then it comes back down to cover them again. Then, a prankster (a caricature of Harpo Marx of the Marx Brothers) comes out from under a table with a slingshot and throws it and pops her bubble. It turns out that she is wearing a barrel. She is surprised by this, and the curtain closes.

There is a movie featuring her bubble dance. In this clip, she is shown on stage maneuvering a huge bubble and dancing to music in the background. It concludes as the dimming lights show her nude body, which is covered by a white stocking.

Also a sketch in "The Benny Hill Show" features this dance. Benny plays a schoolboy who assembles a slingshot and uses it for some exaggerated destruction. He goes to the race track and makes a car crash, he pings an Olympic skier and knocks down an entire building! Finally, he walks into a strip club and sees "Mahala", played by Corrinne Russell, doing her "daring Balloon Dance". Corinne wears almost nothing with only her balloon to cover her breasts. She winks and blows sexy kisses at the crowd. She does some kicks and deep stretches as well as the splits, until Benny pings her with his sling shot and reveals her to be nothing but a blow up doll!

Often, this is performed by women, although it can also be performed by men as well. The performer does not necessarily have to be nude to do the dance, although the performer can play "peek-a-boo" with the audience with the bubble. However, this dance can be a great embarrassment to many dancers if people threaten to burst their bubble in which they hide their nude body with. One prankster startled Sally Rand by bursting her bubble.

Today, the bubble dance is not seen often, but is still in use in some countries.