Jig

Ireland and Scotland

During the middle of the 16th century the dance was adopted in Ireland and in the 17th century Scotland, where it was widely adapted. The jig is typically associated with these countries, especially Ireland. It is second in popularity only to the reel in traditional Irish dance, and in Scottish country dance jigs and reels are the two quicktime dance forms. A jig is transcribed in compound metre, being ⁶
₈ 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, 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

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 of around 116 bpm at feiseanna. 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." To do the step on the left foot, reverse the left and right directions.

Slip jigs

Slip jigs are in ⁹
₈ time. Because of the longer measures, they are longer than the reel 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 ⁶
₈ or less commonly a ¹²
₈ time. Musically, the single jig tends to follow the pattern of a quarter note followed by an eighth note (twice per ⁶
₈ bar), whereas the pattern for the double jig is three eighth notes twice per ⁶
₈ 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 ⁹
₈ 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–eighth note pairs.

Treble jigs

Treble jigs (also called the hard or heavy jig) are performed in hard shoes, and also to a ⁶
₈ 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 performers. Danced to five-string banjo or fiddle tunes in ²
₂ or ²
₄ metre played at schottische 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, an African-American who inspired a host of white imitators, many of whom performed in blackface. 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 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 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, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Sammy Davis Jr., Harriet Browne and, most prominently, Howard "Sandman" Sims.