What You Please - Playford

What You Please - Playford is an English Country Dance. It was published by John Playford (website) in 1657 in The Dancing Master, 3rd ed., London. It was interpreted by Michael Barraclough (website) in about 2017. It is a proper Duple Minor dance. It is a multipart dance. The minor set lasts 112 bars.

Playford writes

Lead up all, fall back, that again ; set to your own, fall back, that again The 1. man cross over with his wo. then take the 2. wo. by the right-hand, the 1. wo. take the 2. man by the right-hand, and fall back Meet your own and fall back, 1. man go in the Figure of 8 about the 2. man and 1. wo. go i the Figure of 8 about the 2. wo. and down in the 2. cu. place, set to your own and fall back, therest following and doing the same.

The 1. cu. cross over and fall back, and the 1. man take the 2. wo. by the rigth-hand, the 1. wo. take he 2 man by the left-hand, and lead up all four a-breast and fall back The 2. cu. go in the Hey, the 1. cu. foowing the Hey down into the 2. cu. place, and arms with your own, the rest following and doing the same.

The 1. cu. fall back and slip down, the 2. cu. slip up into the 1. cu. place, the 1. man cross over with the 2. man and change places Hands half round all four and fall back, set to your own and fll back the rest following and doing the same.

The animation plays at 120 counts per minute normally, but the first time through the set the dance will often be slowed down so people can learn the moves more readily. Men are drawn as rectangles, women as ellipses. Each couple is drawn in its own color, however the border of each dancer indicates what role they currently play so the border color may change each time through the minor set.

An online description of the dance may be found here.

The dance contains the following figures: set, circle, cast, lead, figure eight, double figure eight, arming, cross go below (and probably others).

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=WhatYouPlease-Playford

The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © ~2017 by Michael Barraclough. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2022 by George W. Williams V and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

This website is copyright © 2021,2022,2023,2024 by George W. Williams V
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.

Lead up all, fall back, that again ; set to your own, fall back, that again The 1. man cross over with his wo. then take the 2. wo. by the right-hand, the 1. wo. take the 2. man by the right-hand, and fall back	Meet your own and fall back, 1. man go in the Figure of 8 about the 2. man and 1. wo. go i the Figure of 8 about the 2. wo. and down in the 2. cu. place, set to your own and fall back, therest following and doing the same.

The 1. cu. cross over and fall back, and the 1. man take the 2. wo. by the rigth-hand, the 1. wo. take he 2 man by the left-hand, and lead up all four a-breast and fall back	The 2. cu. go in the Hey, the 1. cu. foowing the Hey down into the 2. cu. place, and arms with your own, the rest following and doing the same.

The 1. cu. fall back and slip down, the 2. cu. slip up into the 1. cu. place, the 1. man cross over with the 2. man and change places	Hands half round all four and fall back, set to your own and fll back the rest following and doing the same.