Friend performing quite a cancan (12)
I believe the answer is:
acquaintance
'friend' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'performing quite a cancan' is the wordplay.
'performing' is an anagram indicator (the letters move around or 'perform').
'quite'+'a'+'cancan'='quiteacancan'
'quiteacancan' is an anagram of 'ACQUAINTANCE'.
(Other definitions for acquaintance that I've seen before include "Person known slightly" , "Familiar person" , "Someone one knows slightly" , "contact" , "Person one knows slightly" .)