Money Musk - traditional contra

This footage is from an Open House (March 12, 2010) in Tunbridge, Vermont, sponsored by the Ed Larkin Dancers. As a performance group, the Larkin dancers keep alive a central Vermont dance tradition, and at their public dances, such as this one, they stick to their traditional repertoire. Money Musk as danced here is the older 32-bar form of the dance, rather than the 24-bar version that was adopted in New Hampshire late in the 19th century and then spread to other locations in part by the calling of Ralph Page.

The prompter is Adam Boyce; musicians are 91-year-old Harold "Chuck" Luce, who has been fiddling with the Larkin Dancers since the late 1930s, joined on piano by his daughter, Donna Weston, and by fiddle apprentice Bonnie Tucker.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Money Musk
• contra
• contra dance
• traditional dance
• chestnuts
• Ed Larkin Dancers
• Tunbridge
• Vermont

[nhcaller]

I'm curious what you mean by your comment. If you mean that it's different from the version danced in RSCDS groups, that's one thing. If you mean that it's different from the 24 bar version more commonly (though still relatively rare) seen in contra groups, that's another. If you mean that there's not the elaborate footwork there would have been when the dance first appeared nearly 250 years ago, that's something else again. So, please explain what you mean by "diluted." Thanks.

[minoune86]

This reel is so diluted, it's almost another reel.