The Dance of the Forty-One or the Ball of the Forty-One (Spanish: El baile de los cuarenta y uno) was a society scandal in early 20th-century Mexico, during the presidency of Porfirio Díaz. The incident revolved around an illegal police raid carried out on 17 November 1901 against a private home on Calle de la Paz (since renamed Calle Ezequiel Montes) in Colonia Tabacalera of Mexico City, the site of a dance attended by a group of men, of whom 19 were dressed in women's clothing.

The press was keen to report the incident, in spite of the government's efforts to hush it up, since the participants belonged to the upper echelons of society. The list of the detainees was never published. Only 41 men were officially arrested; however, there were rumors that Ignacio de la Torre y Mier, son-in-law of President Porfirio Díaz, was also in attendance. Of the 41 men arrested for "offense to morals and good manners", most paid for their freedom and only 12 were eventually sent to work in the Yucatán.^{[citation needed]}

The scandal was called by prominent writer Carlos Monsiváis "the invention of homosexuality in Mexico", due to it being the first time homosexuality was openly spoken about in the Mexican media. The event was derided and satirized in the popular media of the era. The group was frequently termed the 41 maricones. With the rise of the LGBT movement, the event has been depicted more empathetically in contemporary media.

In the early 20th century in Mexico performing dances where only men or only women attended was done frequently, albeit in a clandestine way due to discrimination and public condemnation of sexual diversity at the time. Several sources reported the celebration of parties and public events as parades with transvestite men and women, although they were justified as costume parties.

The presumed organizers of the party would have been the son-in-law of then-President Porfirio Díaz, Ignacio de la Torre y Mier, married to his daughter Amada Díaz, and Antonio Adalid, nicknamed "Toña la Mamonera", godson of Maximilian I of Mexico and Carlota of Mexico; Other sources quoted the journalist Jesús "Chucho" Rábago and the landowner Alejandro Redo as frequent organizers. The party began the night of November 17 secretly in a house rented for that purpose in what were the limits of Mexico City, the Colonia Tabacalera. Media cite the fourth street of La Paz (current Ezequiel Montes or Jesus Carranza) where the guests had gathered in different carriages. The party included, in addition, the "Raffle of Pepito", a contest where the prize would be a sex worker.

Around three o'clock on the morning of November 18, the police raided the house after a man in drag opened the door. This was stated in a journalistic note of the time:

On Sunday night, at a house on the fourth block of Calle la Paz, the police burst into a dance attended by 41 unaccompanied men wearing women's clothes. Among those individuals were some of the dandies seen every day on Calle Plateros. They were wearing elegant ladies' dresses, wigs, false breasts, earrings, embroidered slippers, and their faces were painted with highlighted eyes and rosy cheeks. When the news reached the street, all forms of comments were made and the behaviour of those individuals was subjected to censure. We refrain from giving our readers further details because they are exceedingly disgusting.

— Contemporary press report.