Open the Door to Three ~ Pfitzinger

Open the Door to Three ~ Pfitzinger is an English Country Dance. It was published by John Playford (website) in 1652 in The Dancing Master, 2nd ed., London. It was interpreted by Scott Pfitzinger (website) in about 2019. It is a Square dance. There is no progression in this dance. The dance lasts 120 bars.

Playford writes:

Hands and two D. round, and set and turn S. Meet again Men meet, back again, go all to the left-hand on the out-side of the co. we. Meet all again, back again, and go all on the out-side of the next we. So all this till you come to your own places; then the we. as much.

Sides all, set and turn S. That again As before, we. beginning.

Arms all, set and turn S. That again As at first.

Playford says the dance is "Round for as many as will." I show it for four couples, but don't let that limit you.

What's a double in a slip-jig? from context it takes four bars to do two D. round, and set and turn S.. Presumably it takes 2 bars to do two double, and 1 bar to do a turn single. This seems inconsistent to me.

The only other thing I find confusing here is the "Meet again" in the first part. Presumably it is some variant on "do that again, except in the opposite direction until you are back where you started."

The animation plays at 120 counts per minute. Men are drawn as rectangles, women as ellipses. Each couple is drawn in its own color.

The transcriptions and interpretations of Playford dances found on http://playforddances.com/ from the various editions of The Dancing Master are licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike: CC BY-NC-SA license.
An online description of the dance may be found here.

I.A11-2Circle left for 2 bars
3-4Set left and right and turn single left
I.A21-2Circle right for 2 bars
3-4Set right and left and turn single right
I.A31-2Men meet and fall back
3-4Men pass behind corner to next man's place
I.A41-2Men meet and fall back (again
3-4Men pass behind new corner to next man's place
I.A51-2Men meet and fall back (again
3-4Men pass behind new corner to next man's place
I.A61-2Men meet and fall back (again
3-4Men pass behind new corner to next man's place
I.A71-2Women meet and fall back
3-4Women pass behind corner to next woman's place
I.A81-2Women meet and fall back (again
3-4Women pass behind new corner to next woman's place
I.A91-2Women meet and fall back (again
3-4Women pass behind new corner to next woman's place
I.A101-2Women meet and fall back (again
3-4Women pass behind new corner to next woman's place
II.A11-2Partner side right
3-4Set and turn single
II.A21-2Side left
3-4Set and turn single
II.A31-2Women meet and fall back
3-4Women pass behind corner to next woman's place
II.A41-2Women meet and fall back (again
3-4Women pass behind new corner to next woman's place
II.A51-2Women meet and fall back (again
3-4Women pass behind new corner to next woman's place
II.A61-2Women meet and fall back (again
3-4Women pass behind new corner to next woman's place
II.A71-2Men meet and fall back
3-4Men pass behind corner to next man's place
II.A81-2Men meet and fall back (again
3-4Men pass behind new corner to next man's place
II.A91-2Men meet and fall back (again
3-4Men pass behind new corner to next man's place
II.A101-2Men meet and fall back (again
3-4Men pass behind new corner to next man's place
III.A11-2Partner arm right
3-4Set and turn single
III.A21-2Arm left
3-4Set and turn single
III.A31-2Men meet and fall back
3-4Men pass behind corner to next man's place
III.A41-2Men meet and fall back (again
3-4Men pass behind new corner to next man's place
III.A51-2Men meet and fall back (again
3-4Men pass behind new corner to next man's place
III.A61-2Men meet and fall back (again
3-4Men pass behind new corner to next man's place
III.A71-2Women meet and fall back
3-4Women pass behind corner to next woman's place
III.A81-2Women meet and fall back (again
3-4Women pass behind new corner to next woman's place
III.A91-2Women meet and fall back (again
3-4Women pass behind new corner to next woman's place
III.A101-2Women meet and fall back (again
3-4Women pass behind new corner to next woman's place

If you find what you believe to be a mistake in this animation, please leave a comment on youtube explaining what you believe to be wrong. If I agree with you I shall do my best to fix it.

If you wish to link to this animation please see my comments on the perils of youtube. You may freely link to this page, of course, and that should have no problems, but use one of my redirects when linking to the youtube video itself:
https://www.upadouble.info/redirect.php?id=OpenTheDoorToThree

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The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © ~2019 by Scott Pfitzinger. And is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike: CC BY-NC-SA license. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2022 by George W. Williams V and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike: CC BY-NC-SA license.

This website is copyright © 2021,2022,2023,2024 by George W. Williams V
Creative Commons License My work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Most of the dances have more restrictive licensing, see my notes on copyright, the individual dance pages should mention when some rights are waived.