Ok so I know the Jig is the washer woman right? Well can a guy do the jig?

Just a reminder, our dance program only has like 4 guys 3 little tikes and 1 my age. No one else, so really I have never seen a guy do a national dance before but I know it is done. Sorry if it is a stupid question. Just wondering.

~scottdancer94~

Absolutely!, They are great fun to watch. Guys doing the jig get to show off a bit I think. Of course, the costume is different. I enjoy watching the men/boys do National dances. Some of them do them very well and it is a treat to see that. They get to wear trews (pants) if they wish in the National dances. Somewhere on this site there are some great pictures of guys doing the jig. Perhaps look under jig or photos. There are no stupid questions here, some of us just have a little more knowledge in Highland than others. Hope you get to see some of these guys do Nationals and Jig, and Hornpipe too. Those leaps can be amazing for the men.

I agree!!! I love watching guys do the jig, it is powerful and as someone who struggles with "acting" like an angry washer woman, I admire the strength and agressiveness males can put into the dance!!!

Wow what a quick response!! Thanks I will look for some pictures! Since my dance classes were moved around, some people don't know the same dances as the other, so our teacher is going to teach everyone the dances so every one knows it. That means our guy dancer will learn some nationals. It will be a change for me to see a guy doing the Flora, Lilt and such.

We have three amazing male dancers in our area, I really enjoy watching their jig. They have so much power and energy. I have no idea how they do the steps and twirl the shillelaigh at the same time!

Here is the male jig costume thread.
www.dance.net . . .

And a cool picture of a male dancer doing the jig.
www.sshga.org . . .

So that is what their out fitlooks like! I wonder how our guy will look...

Just thought I'd post this link to the Children's Britanica
It shows a picture of the 'irish' jig but done as a male female partner dance.

I'm wondering though if they have their facts straight about the origins of this particular, seemingly rather old, illustration. sadly there is no date on the picture but it is a print rather than photo from 'Hulton Archive/Getty Images'.

The guy is also twirling a shillelaigh which makes me wonder if it really is a print of the Scottish version instead. It's also being danced to a tin wistle or hornpipe which i think was the way it was traditionally done. There is also quite a close match between the male dancers costume in the print and our current SOBHD regulations. Just click on the image and see what you think

student.britannica.com . . .

Thanks for the link to the old male jig thread highlandrebel, sadly it is too old for me to bring it forward with this post so sorry for any hijack here .

It is sort of interesting none the less, I just wish I knew how old the print was....

Interesting... Found it in the Houlton Archive

It has a date of 1906, so maybe we are closer to the real Irish jig than we think ...

www.gettyimages.com . . .

Caption:
1906: Irish villagers dancing a traditional Irish Jig. Original Publication: The OULD IRISH JIG 'Then a fig for the new fashioned waltzes imported from Spain and from France, And a fig for the thing called the polka, Our own Irish jig we will dance'. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

yes, a guy mad at the washer woman for shrinking his pants!! I am not joking, it is true!!

SCOTDANCER 94
there is no such thing as a stupid question . Look at the great replys ,, So enteresting and educational Im glad you asked.

I love watching the boys do the jig they are all so good at it.

christine.

of course!

LOL

Talk about things coming full circle... It would be an interesting twist for a choreo would it not?

Man angry at washer-woman for ruining his breeches in the wash and WW replying in kind??? A bit of a dust up with the shillelaigh and the woman's dolly pin (careful here !!). I also heard from our teacher that there were some more vigourous arms used in the female dance a while back, which are not used any more in comps, throw those in too for good mesure. A bit of a stand-off and a reconcilliation and hey presto!

You have the beginnings of a marriage made in heaven (LOL)

Just a thought though...


*Warning contentious point ahead*

I'm not sure if it would ring quite as true without a guy dancing the male part of the jig (IMVHO and please feel free to disagree with me) somehow feigning the fury within the dance is just qualitatively different in the masculine and feminine ???

Nice idea!
However......
Maybe it's just my feminist attitude, but anything with 'fury' between a man and a woman, one of which is carrying a club-like instrument kinda makes me a little uncomfortable. Rework it without any kind of carrying props and I'm in. Sort of a mix between a cakewalk and the jig would be ideal.

Hi Booverley,

Kind of know what you mean but I think that is also the point to make here especially to the kiddies (no offence or detriment intended) dancing. For me personally if our children are to dance the cakewalk or jig there is an inherrent need to learn from the moral aspects of the dance.

*sorry all quick sermon ahead - should have included this as a caveat to my last post!*

(IMHO) Violence (symbolic or otherwise) in almost any context for me is a sorry excuse for a last resort. There are simply much better ways to deal with most situations.

Parrody and irony can be an excellent medium for teaching this to our young ones while also providing a reference point for the older dancers, so long as it is clearly understood that the jig is a parrody of the infamous (and stereotypical) Irish temper (???) and not a blueprint of how to conduct oneself.

Without getting in to a long debate over the various kinds of Feminism it may surprise you to know I'd consider myself as somewhat of a feminist on the socio-economico-political scales at least?

HIGHLAND_JnK:
I didn't say that your idea wasn't a good one, in fact it would make an excellent dance. It was the idea of the 'man' in his fury brandishing his shilleleah at the 'woman' that made me uncomfortable. Remove the prop and I guess any brandishing of fists at the other person and I'm fine with it. As you said we need to give our young people a point of reference.

I wasn't getting into any kind of debate about feminism, just letting you know how I felt.

Point taken and no debate intended (we could be here all day ) In truth I don't see the necessity for the props either - just an embelishment on the photo from 1906 I posted the link to above. If done well I think it could be rather spectacular.

Rather I had a levelling of the field in mind than a one sided battering as in the photo.

In fact what I had thought of for the female prop was the dolly and tub as in the center of the page here.. You could, I suspect get some serious height for the heel clicks with the aid of the dolly ??

a-day-in-the-life.powys.org.uk . . .

I do admit that the use of the word 'fury' feigned or otherwise was rather emotive, possibly a poor choice of word on my part. And I suspect that the theme would be rather too adult for the smaller dancers in any event too.

I'm no dancer I'll leave that to other far more athletic than me, it's just that I've seen plenty of jigs danced now with fist waving and beaming smiles which just don't seem to gel somehow. If the dancer is supposed to be irate surely this is the one dance that should (at least in part) be danced with a frown, scowl or grimace or am I missing the point ??

Actually I'd love to know as our Katie is just starting to learn the jig now, does the demeanour of the dancer matter to a judge in the jig ???

Thanks Booverley, good point well made

Wow. Thanks for that link Highland_JnK. Everything I needed to know to be happy I have electricity, running water and a top-loading washing machine! (It also answered my question as to what a dolly was.)

Did you ever see that show The 1900 House? I loved the video diary scene: 'I've just had my first hot bath and what a miserable, terrible affair it was'.

Yes indeed, but sometimes I wonder if all our labour saving divices just give us more time to rush headlong from one thing to another . I did see the 1900's house and what I found really interesting is how difficult it was for the 20th century family to adapt to the lack of technology rather than just go with it, particularly for the children. Very interesting indeed

I assume that the term 'wash day' had a much more literal meaning 100 + years ago and you could certainly understand why a 'washer woman' would get so upset at any complaints by her indolent husband's gripes or troublesome kids running about through the washing as it dried ?? .

I could certainly imagine that she would be a fearsome sight brandishing dolly / scrubbing brush / or heavy soap block (it came in hard dense bricks) having had her hard days toil undone.

Bringing the thread back on topic though I've seen the male version of the Highland version of the jig end with the dancer throwing his paddy hat (appropriate name ) onto the floor and striking it with his shillelaigh (fighting stick) after having danced the other steps in a jaunty mood. I assume that this is the point at which, in our paradoxical version of the jig, Paddy has had enough of the washer woman's tirade ??

Am I correct in assuming this?

OK so I've been digging around in the dust again and with Booverley's comments about props (namely the Shillelaigh) I wanted to understand why our guys use one within the dance in the first place.

I thought I would pass on this book preview which discusses its symbolic and material use within male Irish culture (particularly peasent culture). I think the text (very interesting by the way) explains fully why it is so promenent in the male parody.

books.google.co.uk . . .

I hope you find it as interesting as I did, but please children don't try this at home

Mike