Chinese Fan - Lisa Greenleaf
This clip only shows the actual Chinese Fan part of the dance. Omitted are the opening figures, breaks, and the ending. The dance is usually done with dancers linking elbows; here, the caller simply has them holding hands, which perhaps makes the figure simpler to carry out. Recorded June 1, 2013, Spring Dance Weekend; music by Karen Axelrod, piano; Daron Douglas, fiddle; Anna Patton, clarinet.
Reference is made to a "Chinese fan" in the first Five Years of Sets in Order yearbook, published in 1954, but the figure itself wasn't described until the final issue of SIO's successor publication, Square Dancing, in December of 1985. Author Ed Butenhof learned the figure from Kathy Anderson, who in turn picked it up from Pam McKeever. We don't (yet) know if McKeever learned it from another source or if she created the figure herself, perhaps building on the Texan Whirl figure. We have not found the dance published in any early square dance book.
Subjects: Transitional/Western 1950s
Tags: Chinese Fan, Lisa Greenleaf, Pam McKeever
Item Relations
| This Item | is related to | Item: Pam McKeever - Cheyenne Mountain Dancers demo, 1990 |
| This Item | is related to | Item: Pam McKeever and the Flying Squares, 1981 |
| This Item | is related to | Item: Texan Whirl - Rickey Holden |
| This Item | is related to | Item: Square Dances - 1981 - Pam McKeever & Tod Whittemore |
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Description
This clip only shows the actual Chinese Fan part of the dance. Omitted are the opening figures, breaks, and the ending. The dance is usually done with dancers linking elbows; here, the caller simply has them holding hands, which perhaps makes the figure simpler to carry out. Recorded June 1, 2013, Spring Dance Weekend; music by Karen Axelrod, piano; Daron Douglas, fiddle; Anna Patton, clarinet.
Reference is made to a "Chinese fan" in the first Five Years of Sets in Order yearbook, published in 1954, but the figure itself wasn't described until the final issue of SIO's successor publication, Square Dancing, in December of 1985. Author Ed Butenhof learned the figure from Kathy Anderson, who in turn picked it up from Pam McKeever. We don't (yet) know if McKeever learned it from another source or if she created the figure herself, perhaps building on the Texan Whirl figure. We have not found the dance published in any early square dance book.