Jig

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This article is about the folk dance; for other meanings, see Jig (disambiguation).

The jig (Irish: port) is a folk dance type as well as the accompanying dance tune type, popular in Ireland. It is sometimes seen in its French or Italian forms, gigue or giga, but these are more usually used for the baroque dance forms.

The "Irish Jig" is a popular tune-type within the traditions of Irish dance music, second only to the reel, and popular but somewhat less common in Scottish country dance music. It is transcribed in compound meter. "Double jigs" are always transcribed in 6/8; "slip jigs" are always written in 9/8. "Single jigs" are most commonly transcribed in 6/8, but sometimes also in 12/8. "Slides" are transcribed in both 12/8 and 6/8.^[1]

Probably the most well-known jig is the double jig, The Irish Washerwoman.

The most common structure is two eight-bar parts, each of which is repeated (AABB). There are a number of tunes with three or more parts, and some in which the length of one or more parts varies from eight bars. As with most other types of dance tunes in Irish music, at a session or a dance it is common for two or more jigs to be strung together, flowing on without interruption.

In Cotswold morris, a jig is a dance performed by a single dancer, or sometimes two. Its music is not usually a jig in the sense given above.

[edit] Origins and etymology

The word "jig" seems to have cognates in various Germanic languages that describe a certain type of repetitive motion. Compare, for instance, Icelandic geiga (which means "to rove at random" or "to take a sudden unexpected direction"), German geigen ("a back and forth motion, usually with the bow on the strings of the violin"), and Bernese German gyg-ampfe ("to seesaw").