Pan Dance

There are all sorts of kinds of entertainment here from community drama to the magnificent music groups to open mics.  My personal favorite is steel drum concerts we call “pan dances”.  In the summertime a group performs every Monday for various non-profits.  This type of music originates from Trinidad and Tobago where Carl Chase (a man from my hometown of Brooksville) heard a steel drum band and became fascinated.  He came back to Brooksville and started making drums and teaching lessons on how to play these great instruments.  They range from tenor drums, made with one drum, to bass drums, made with six drums.  Pans are made from 55 gallon drums and hammered just right to get the correct sound.  Since the early 1990’s, pan music has been popular here on the Blue Hill Peninsula.  The most popular steel drum group in the area is Flash in the Pans (http://www.flashinthepans.org/).  This website also allows you to sign up for lessons which are available to anyone.  In my high school, they offered a steel drum class which is the only class I never got to take at good old George Stevens Academy.

The pan dance environment is always so much fun.  On the Peninsula, they are generally held in the Blue Hill Park and there are always a variety of people who attend from middle aged tourists to local high schoolers.  There are always baked goods and beverages sold in the back.  People dance in the front but you can socialize in the back, my personal favorite.  Bad news is it is not the summer so we do not get to enjoy these social gatherings.  However, on New Year’s Eve they will be performing in Downtown Blue Hill.  YOU BET I WILL BE THERE!