Money Musk is a classic American contra dance, one of a group of dances frequently referred to as the "chestnuts." It has a venerable and fascinating history, which is explored in depth in the 2008 book Cracking Chestnuts. Two of us, David Smukler and David Millstone, worked together on this book, and also created this web page. Our book is available from the CDSS Store.
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Money Musk Animation by Ariel Barton Like this video? The music features:
Randy Miller, piano Sandy Bradley, guitar George Wilson, bass Our other version gives you a taste of the classic calling of Ralph Page. |
Last year, as a way of celebrating the publication of Cracking Chestnuts, we two Davids proclaimed that March 14 would be the date for the first ever International Money Musk Moment. Callers, musicians and dancers heard the call and celebrated this great old dance in 22 locations, including Switzerland, Denmark, and New Zealand. Granted, not everyone was able to participate on that exact day, so the grand tally (involving 1,376 dancers and 88 musicians--the same number as keys on a piano) included dances held on or about that mid-March date. Emboldened by the success of that moment, we decided to broaden our horizons, and declared March of 2010 to be International Money Musk Month. Callers everywhere were encouraged to add Money Musk to their program provided that the musicians knew the tune and the dancers were capable of doing the dance. We were especially delighted to see many callers and musicians rise to the challenge and presenting the dance for their first time. There were many successes, and some glorious failures. (See the comments page for descriptions of both.) As a result, this year well over 2,000 dancers experienced this grand old dance, and we are optimistic that Money Musk has a bright future in the repertoire for today's dancers. |
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Money Musk is a classic in the repertoire and is finding a legion of enthusiastic new fans. However, the dance is not without its challenges. For example:
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![]() "Bring Back Money Musk" T-shirt design by Bill Finch |
By the way, in addition to the March listings, we also got word from callers who presented the dance in late February or early April 2010. We are delighted that they did; it is wonderful to hear about Money Musk being danced any month of the year! However, in order not to exaggerate the success of our International Money Musk Month we have only listed those instances that actually occurred in March.
Videos from the 2010 International Money Musk Month
Videos from the 2009 International Money Musk Moment
Other sites of potential interest...
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Another Money Musk Animation by Ariel Barton This version has slightly different timing and features Ralph Page calling with:
John Trombly, piano Junior Richardson, bass |