Tuesday, February 7, 2012

All About The Jig

By Aaron B. Baker


When people hear the phrase 'jig', they don't necessarily associate it with dancing. For those people that don't know, a 'jig' is truly a form of folk dance that's lively in nature. The name itself, 'jig', is actually derived from 'giguer', which is a French term that means 'to jump', hence, the lively nature in the dance.

This form of dance is frequently associated with Scottish and Irish dance music, nevertheless it actually originated from England through the sixteenth century. The dance was really performed in 2/4 times. Subsequently, it has taken different forms and adaptation in several time signatures. The 'jig' is actually divided into different forms, all of which would be discussed in this post.

Light Jig

Among all the various types of jigs, the light jig is regarded as the fastest as it is performed in 6/8 times. In this particular form of jig, your feet are hardly ever off the ground for a long period of time. This can be so because the steps in this dance are relatively fast, at a minimum of 116 speeds at feiseanna.

Each light jig step can in fact vary with each dance school sufficient reason for each teacher, but there are certain standard steps or movements which can be used in almost all forms of light jigs, which step is referred to as the rise and grind, or rising step. Everything you do to perform this step is basically place your weight on your first foot, then raise the second foot off the floor, once you have done this, you simply perform two hops on your first foot, or around the foot that is still on the ground.

As soon as you take your second hop, then you definitely drop your second foot and convey it at the back of your first foot, or the foot that did both the hops. Once you have done this, you just need to shift your weight from your first foot to your second foot while letting the first foot remain in the air as soon as the second hop. There is commonly a small delay during the hop and the hop back.

Single Jigs

Through the fastest form of jig, supermarket proceed to the least common one. The jigs considered to be the least common one of the jig dances because it uses a not so common time signature, which is 12/8 at times, while normally it uses 6/8. That is so because this type of jig follows a musical pattern of an eighth note following a quarter note.

Slip Jig

The slip jigs is known as a bit longer than the light jig because it uses a longer time signature compared to the light jig. The time signature that the slip jig uses is actually 9/8 time, although the dance is carried out with a music that has basically similar variety of bars to a light jig. This form of jig is considered by some as 'the ballet of jigs' since the dancers often perform this dance when they are high up on their toes.

Treble Jigs

Treble jigs would be the only form of jigs which might be performed wherein the performer would wear hard shoes, allowing the performer to do certain moves and steps, including clicks, stomps, and trebles. Beginners usually do this dance in a traditional speed, while higher performers perform the slow, non-traditional treble jig.

Hop Jigs

Hop jigs is probably one of the more problematic forms of jigs to describe, as a lot of people often confuse it along with other forms of jigs, such as slip jig, or single jig. Some basically identify this form of jig through its a pointer signature, which is 9/8 time.




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