![HaymakersJig](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7f/HaymakersJig.jpg)
The jig ( ga, port, gd, port-cruinn) is a form of lively
folk dance in
compound metre, as well as the accompanying dance
tune. It is most associated with Irish music and dance. It first gained popularity in 16th-century Ireland and parts of Great Britain and was quickly adopted on
mainland Europe
Continental Europe or mainland Europe is the contiguous continent of Europe, excluding its surrounding islands. It can also be referred to ambiguously as the European continent, – which can conversely mean the whole of Europe – and, by ...
where it eventually became the final movement of the mature
Baroque
The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...
dance suite (the French
gigue
The gigue (; ) or giga () is a lively baroque dance originating from the English jig. It was imported into France in the mid-17th centuryBellingham, Jane"gigue."''The Oxford Companion to Music''. Ed. Alison Latham. Oxford Music Online. 6 July 200 ...
; Italian and Spanish
giga
Giga ( or ) is a unit prefix in the metric system denoting a factor of a short-scale billion or long-scale milliard (109 or ). It has the symbol G.
''Giga'' is derived from the Greek word (''gígas''), meaning "giant". The ''Oxford English Dic ...
). Today it is most associated with
Irish dance
Irish dance refers to a group of traditional dance forms that originate in Ireland, encompassing dancing both solo and in groups, and dancing for social, competitive, and performance purposes. Irish dance in its current form developed from vari ...
music,
Scottish country dance
Scottish country dance (SCD) is the distinctively Scottish form of country dance, itself a form of social dance involving groups of couples of dancers tracing progressive patterns. A dance consists of a sequence of figures. These dances are ...
and the
Métis people
The Métis ( ; Canadian ) are Indigenous peoples who inhabit Canada's three Prairie Provinces, as well as parts of British Columbia, the Northwest Territories, and the Northern United States. They have a shared history and culture which derives ...
in Canada.
Jigs were originally in duple compound metre, (e.g., time), but have been adapted to a variety of
time signature
The time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, or measure signature) is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats (pulses) are contained in each measure (bar), and which note value ...
s, by which they are often classified into groups, including double jigs (), slip jigs () and single jigs ().
Origins
![Will Kemp Elizabethan Clown Jig](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/de/Will_Kemp_Elizabethan_Clown_Jig.jpg)
The term ''jig'' was probably derived from the French ''giguer'', meaning ‘to jump’ or the
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
''giga''. The use of “jig” in Irish dance derives from the
Irish
Irish may refer to:
Common meanings
* Someone or something of, from, or related to:
** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe
***Éire, Irish language name for the isle
** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
''jigeánnai'', itself borrowed from the
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
''giga'' meaning ‘old dance’.
It was known as a dance in 16th-century England, often in time, and the term was used for a
post-play entertainment featuring dance in early modern England, but which ‘probably employed a great variety
of dances, solo (suitable for jigs), paired, round, country or courtly’; in
Playford's ''Dancing Master'' (1651) ‘the dance game in “Kemps Jegg” is a typical scenario from a dramatic jig and it is likely that the combination of dance metre for steps and non-metrical passages for pantomime indicates how a solo or ensemble jig might have been danced by stage players.’ Later the dance began to be associated with music particularly in time, and with slip jigs time.
Ireland and Scotland
During the 17th century the dance was adopted in Ireland and Scotland, where it was widely adapted because of Matt, and the jig is now most often associated with these countries, especially Ireland. The jig is second in popularity only to the
reel
A reel is an object around which a length of another material (usually long and flexible) is wound for storage (usually hose are wound around a reel). Generally a reel has a cylindrical core (known as a '' spool'') with flanges around the en ...
in traditional Irish dance; it is popular but somewhat less common in Scottish country dance music. It is transcribed in
compound metre, being time. The most common structure of a jig is two eight-bar parts, performing two different steps, each once on the right foot, and one on the left foot. As with most other types of dance
tunes in
Irish music
Irish music is music that has been created in various genres on the island of Ireland.
The indigenous music of the island is termed Irish traditional music. It has remained vibrant through the 20th and into the 21st century, despite globalis ...
, at a session or a dance it is common for two or more jigs to be strung together in a set, flowing on without interruption.
In Irish step dance
The following distinction is primarily observed in modern competitive Irish dance and should not be confused with the general notion of how the jigs are played and classified among traditional Irish musicians.
Light jigs
![Jig shoe 3](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ef/Jig_shoe_3.jpg)
A light jig is the second-fastest of all jigs. The performer's feet rarely leave the ground for long, as the step is fast, typically performed at a speed around 116 at
feis
A () or () is a traditional Gaelic arts and culture festival. The plural forms are () and (). The term is commonly used referring to Irish dance competitions and, in Scotland, to immersive teaching courses, specialising in traditional musi ...
eanna. There are several light jig steps, varying with each dance school, but the rising step, or the rise and grind, is standard in almost all light jigs. The right side version of the rising step is performed by putting weight on the left foot, lifting the right foot off the ground then hopping on the left foot once. Hop on the left foot again, bringing the right foot back behind the left foot and then shift the weight onto the right foot, leaving the left foot in the air. Dancers use the phrase "hop, hop back" for these three movements, and there is a slight pause between the hop, and hop back. The next movement is a hop on the right foot. Then shift the weight, left-right-left-right. The phrase for this whole movement is: "hop, hop back, hop back 2-3-4." To do the step on the left foot, reverse the left and right directions.
Slip jigs
Slip jig
Slip jig () refers to both a style within Irish music, and the Irish dance to music in slip-jig time. The slip jig is in time, traditionally with accents on 5 of the 9 beats — two pairs of crotchet/ quaver (quarter note/eighth note) followed ...
s are in time. Because of the longer measures, they are longer than the
reel
A reel is an object around which a length of another material (usually long and flexible) is wound for storage (usually hose are wound around a reel). Generally a reel has a cylindrical core (known as a '' spool'') with flanges around the en ...
and the light jig, with the same number of bars to the music. The dance is performed high on the toes, and is often considered the "ballet of Irish dance" because of its graceful movements that seem to slip the performers across the floor. Slip jigs are performed at a speed of 113 bpm at feiseanna.
Single and double jigs
Single jigs should not be confused with
slides; they are the least common of the jigs, performed in ghillies, in a or less commonly a time. Musically, the single jig tends to follow the pattern of a quarter note followed by an eighth note (twice per bar), whereas the pattern for the double jig is three eighth notes twice per bar.
Hop jigs
Hop jigs are the fastest of all jigs next to light jigs, but the term hop jig causes some confusion, as some people use it for a single jig, while others use this term to refer to a tune in time.
Among the latter, some do not distinguish it from a slip jig, while some reserve the term to a slip jig variant that has special characteristics, in particular an emphasis on
quarter note
A quarter note (American) or crotchet ( ) (British) is a note (music), musical note played for one quarter of the duration of a whole note (or semibreve). Quarter notes are notated with a filled-in oval note head and a straight, flagless ste ...
–
eighth note
180px, Figure 1. An eighth note with stem extending up, an eighth note with stem extending down, and an eighth rest.
180px, Figure 2. Four eighth notes beamed together.
An eighth note (American) or a quaver (British) is a musical note play ...
pairs.
Treble jigs
Treble jigs (also called the hard or heavy jig) are performed in hard shoes, and also to a time metre. They are characterized by stomps, trebles, and clicks. Many set dances are performed in treble jig time, a few being Drunken Gauger, Blackthorn Stick, The Three Sea Captains, and St Patrick's Day. Two types of treble jigs are performed at feiseanna: the traditional and non-traditional (slow) treble jigs. Beginners will do a treble jig at traditional speed (92 bpm), while more advanced dancers will dance the non-traditional (slow) treble jig at 72 bpm.
Straight and sand jigs
In 19th-century America, the jig was the name adopted for a form of step dancing developed by enslaved African-Americans and later adopted by
minstrel show
The minstrel show, also called minstrelsy, was an American form of racist theatrical entertainment developed in the early 19th century.
Each show consisted of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music performances that depicted people spe ...
performers. Danced to five-string banjo or fiddle tunes in or metre played at
schottische
The schottische is a partnered country dance that apparently originated in Bohemia. It was popular in Victorian era ballrooms as a part of the Bohemian folk-dance craze and left its traces in folk music of countries such as Argentina ("chotis"Span ...
tempo, the minstrel jig (also called the "straight jig" to distinguish it from Irish dances) was characterized by syncopated rhythm and eccentric movements. Jig dancers employed a repertoire of "hits" on the heel or toe, ""hops" on one foot, "springs" off both feet as well as various slides and shuffles. The most famous early jig dancer was
Master Juba
Master Juba (ca. 1825 – ca. 1852 or 1853) was an African-American dancer active in the 1840s. He was one of the first black performers in the United States to play onstage for white audiences and the only one of the era to tour with a white mi ...
, an African-American who inspired a host of white imitators, many of whom performed in
blackface
Blackface is a form of theatrical makeup used predominantly by non-Black people to portray a caricature of a Black person.
In the United States, the practice became common during the 19th century and contributed to the spread of racial stereo ...
.
John Diamond, an Irish-American who competed with Master Juba in a series of "challenge dances," was among the most prominent of these white minstrel jig dancers. Minstrel jigs, as well as
clogs
Clogs are a type of footwear made in part or completely from wood. Used in many parts of the world, their forms can vary by culture, but often remained unchanged for centuries within a culture.
Traditional clogs remain in use as protective fo ...
and breakdowns, were crucial to the evolution of 20th-century
tap and soft-shoe dancing.
A variant of the straight jig was the "
sand jig" or "sand dance," performed as a series of shuffles and slides on a sand-strewn stage. The most prominent sand jiggers of the 19th century were two women, both born in New York in 1855: Buffalo native
Kitty O'Neil
Kitty Linn O'Neil (March 24, 1946 – November 2, 2018) was an American stuntwoman and racer, known as "the fastest woman in the world". An illness in early childhood left her deaf, and more illnesses in early adulthood cut short a career in dr ...
and her Manhattan-born rival Kitty Sharpe.
Sand dancing was a staple of minstrelsy, variety and vaudeville, and was kept alive in later decades largely by African-American tap dancers, including
John Bubbles
John William Sublett (February 19, 1902 – May 18, 1986), known by his stage name John W. Bubbles, was an American tap dancer, vaudevillian, movie actor, and television performer. He performed in the duo "Buck and Bubbles", who were the fi ...
,
Bill "Bojangles" Robinson
Bill Robinson, nicknamed Bojangles (born Luther Robinson; May 25, 1878 – November 25, 1949), was an American tap dancer, actor, and singer, the best known and the most highly paid African-American entertainer in the United States during the f ...
,
Sammy Davis Jr.
Samuel George Davis Jr. (December 8, 1925 – May 16, 1990) was an American singer, dancer, actor, comedian, film producer and television director.
At age three, Davis began his career in vaudeville with his father Sammy Davis Sr. and the ...
,
Harriet Browne and, most prominently,
Howard "Sandman" Sims.
See also
*
Shakespearean dance
*
The Irish Washerwoman
"The Irish Washerwoman" is a traditional jig known to have been played throughout Britain and Ireland and in North America. Although usually considered an Irish tune, some scholars claim that it is English in origin, derived from the seventeenth-c ...
*
Swing
References
Notes
Bibliography
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External links
Irish footwork
{{Authority control
British folk music
English folk dance
Irish folk music
Scottish folk music
Welsh folk music
English country dance
Scottish country dance
Baroque dance
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European dances
Competitive dance
Folk dances
Irish dances
Scottish dances
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