Punk's Delight

The Punk's Delight (The New Way)

Punk's Delight or The Punk's Delight (The New Way) is an English Country Dance. It was published by John Playford (website) in 1651 in The English Dancing Master, London. It was interpreted by Scott Pfitzinger (website) in about 2019. It is a proper Duple Minor dance. It is a multipart dance. The minor set lasts 112 bars. It is in the key: D Major.

Playford writes

Lead up all a D forward and back, that again, Set, that again
First man cross over, and taking the 2. wo. by both hands, turn her half about with her back inward, then put her back into the 2. place, while your we. do the like with the 2. man into 1. place, slip through each other, hands all four round, then the 1. cu. arms into the 2. cu. place, whilst the 2. cu. arms into the 1. place.
First man going on the out-side and his wo. on the in-side, the 2. wo meet behind her, then the 1. man going on the in-side, and his wo. on the out side, the 2. man meet behind him, then the 1. cu. and the 2. man right-hands a-cross and go round, then the 1. cu. and 2. wo. right-hands a-cross and go round, the 1. cu. falling into the 2. place
First man go on the out-side the 1. wo. and the 2. man following him, the 1. man go through between the 1. and 2. we. and march to the wall, the two we. take hands and follow him, the 2. man behind them, then facing back follow the other man to the other wall, then meet, cast off to the right your own wo. following you and stay the men in the we. places, and the we. in their men's by the right-hands, we. doing the like; each change his own by the left-hand

A "punk" was a prostitute.

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.

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.

Up a double
 
Intro.A1-4Up a Double, and back
5-8That again: Up a double and back
9-12Partner set and turn single
13-16That again: Set and turn single
Figure 1 repeats 2 times
 
I.A1-21s cross, to slip down (back to back) between the 2s
3-5Neighbor two hand turn three quarters
6-81s slip passed each other into 2nd place proper as 2s move up
9-12Circle left
13-16Partner arm right
Figure 2 repeats 2 times
 
II.A1-4M1 cross the set, go outside ending behind W2, as W1 moves down the middle and loops W2 to stand beside her partner
5-8M1 cross between 2s loop around M2 as W1 loops both 2s to end beside him again
9-121s+M2 right hands across three until the 1s are in the middle (half or once and a half)
13-161s+W2 right hands across three once, all moving to progressed places
Figure 3 repeats 2 times
 
III.A1-4M1, followed by M2 cross above W1 (who stands), loops her, and crosses between the women. M1 ending in middle, M2 outside women (in a diamond formation)
5-6All move a double toward the men's wall
7-8Turn and move a double toward the women's wall
9-12All cast right, all ending unprogressed but improper
13-16Face neighbor, two changes of rights and lefts

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=PunksDelight

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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 © 2021 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.