Musical statues is a game played at children's

birthday parties A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a Hospitality, host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will oft ...

. Originating from the United Kingdom, the game is similar to

musical chairs Musical chairs, also known as Trip to Jerusalem, is a game of elimination involving players, chairs, and music. It is a staple of many parties worldwide. Gameplay A set of chairs is arranged in a circle with one fewer chair than the numbe ...

and is part of the "Jerusalem games", of which elimination is an element. It is also known as freeze dance in the United States and statue dance in Philippines.

Rules

Players stand in an area, usually a

dance hall Dance hall in its general meaning is a hall for Dance, dancing, but usually refers to a specific type of twentieth-century venue, with dance clubs (nightclubs) becoming more popular towards the end of the century. The palais de danse was a term ap ...

, with one person controlling the music. When the music starts the players should dance along to it, and when it stops, they must freeze in position. Any player moving or laughing while the music has stopped is out of the game. Play continues until there is only one person left, who will be announced as the winner.

Variations

In the newspaper dance game, players must dance on a sheet of newspaper without stepping off of it. Whenever the music stops and players freeze, the pieces of newspaper are torn in half to a smaller size. For another version, pairs of players dance around the sheet, which they must step on as the music stops; the newspaper being folded to smaller sizes as the game progresses. In the traffic light game, players run around pretending to be vehicles, and must freeze when the game runner shouts "red!"

World record

The world record for musical statues was set on 16 August 2013. Over 1,500 students at Mansfield State High School in

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

participated in the event.

In popular culture

In the opening credits to the Australian children's animated series '' Bluey'', the characters play a game of musical statues. The game is also mentioned in the

Harry Potter ''Harry Potter'' is a series of seven Fantasy literature, fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young Magician (fantasy), wizard, Harry Potter (character), Harry Potter, and his friends ...

series, where the titular character and his spoiled cousin Dudley Dursley played it at the latter's fifth birthday party in 1985, only for Harry to lose when Dudley's aunt, Marge, beat him in the shins with a cane.

References

{{Party games Children's games Party games Musical culture