Dance Worthy

It’s hard enough to convince someone that there actually is an Irish Dancing World Championship, but it might impossible to convince anyone that there have been over 40 of them.

However, after watching Sue Bourne’s documentary “Jig,” you’ll never forget the event, or the people involved.

Emotional throughout, you’d never think their was so much sacrifice involved in dance. From a small child dancing with a broken foot, to an adopted Indian teen that excels in the sport in spite of never being able to stick to anything else in his life, this documentary is filled with amazing characters that are fighting for what they love.

In less than two hours, Bourne is able to not only prove that the sport is a legitimate one, but one that is extremely captivating as well.

Excellent access is a key component in any solid documentary and this is perhaps where Bourne’s film shines the most. In a short period of time, Bourne is able to show how loved the sport of Irish Dance is worldwide. Taking you to dance studios as local as the United States and as far away as Russia, Bourne sets the scene marvelously. Each studio has its own story to tell and wunderkind to keep an eye on.

As a result, every scene change and new character introduced does a phenomenal job of advancing the story and adding a layer to the drama.

Nonetheless, even after the first half of the film, it’s still easy to think of the jig as a niche dance, but by the time you get the actual tournament and emotions begin to be expressed more, you’ll see it’s much more. The competition for the world championships is fierce and despite the fact that it appears at times that the parents involved want their children to succeed more than they do, this is a far cry from a beauty contest.

At the same time, it’s easy to see the same spectacle involved, with the expensive clothes and wigs adorned on the female contestants. As well, the judges admit during the course of the documentary that the way the sport is scored is completely subjective, which hurts its overall appeal. Even after watching, you’ll have a hard time being able to tell who’s better than whom, which makes it feel like a popularity contest at times.

Nevertheless, it’s impossible to deny the talent these contestants have and the hard work they put into their craft. Towards the end of the documentary, it’ll be quite a challenge to hold back tears.

It’s that emotional.

Expensive and bad on the body, it’s not a sport for everyone. But for the people involved, Irish dance provides a creative outlet and a way of life. Beautifully shot and with top-notch sources, “Jig” is ultimately a study of character and life that makes the sport intriguing to anyone that watches it.

That alone is a huge accomplishment.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14262 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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