Jig Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

Jig Blu-ray Movie Review

Is the jig up with this new Blu-ray?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 16, 2011

They say that everyone’s a little bit Irish on St. Patrick’s day, but one has to wonder if that adage also holds true for those wanting to follow in the fleet footsteps of Michael Flatley of Riverdance and Lord of the Dance fame. Irish dancing, sometimes called Irish step dancing, wasn’t that well known of a phenomenon before Flatley and his various troupes came along to take the world by storm, but, oh, how things have changed. Irish dancing is beyond phenomenon stage now and has turned into something of a worldwide sensation, and judging by its effects on several of the participants and hangers-on in Jig, perhaps even an obsession. Jig traces the stories of several competitors at the fortieth Irish World Dancing Championships held in Glasgow, Scotland in March 2010. While there is certainly the expected assortment of Irish or descended from Irish kids and young adults taking part in the festival, what’s perhaps a little surprising are entrants from such far flung locales as Russia and Holland, among others. There’s obviously something in Irish dancing which speaks to many nationalities and has helped make it such an important part of so many peoples’ lives. As I mentioned in my review of Lord of the Dance, I witnessed firsthand the allure of Irish dancing some years ago when a chorus for which I direct and arrange did a Celtic themed concert, and I hired the Oregon Irish dancing champion (yes, there is such a thing) to perform at the concert. Now, the choir is itself popular, and I also had a bagpiper and an Irish fiddler there, so who’s to say how many people came to just see the dancing aspect. All I can say is that there were so many people that the church where we performed was stuffed to the gills—probably far exceeding its fire code safety limit—and hundreds more were clamoring in the narthex and even out in the parking lot to get seat. That same fascination has obviously touched the lives of the competitors profiled in Jig, and of course they’ve taken it a step further (sorry, couldn’t resist) to actually master this incredibly difficult and precise art form.

The most prominent pull quote which is splattered across the cover and press materials for Jig proclaim that it is going to be a documentary offering a combination of Spellbound (the Spelling bee documentary, not the Hitchcock thriller) and Lord of the Dance. While that’s true to a certain extent, anyone who was slightly aghast at how deadly serious at least some of the parents in Spellbound were may be pleasantly surprised to see how comparatively friendly everyone in Jig is. There just aren’t many Dance Mom moments, to cull an example from this side of the pond, albeit a hyperbolic one manufactured for “reality” television. These are parents who are often mystified as to why Irish dancing has “infected” their kids so completely, leading to everything from world travels to visit various feises (contests) to actual upheaval of hearth and home with respect to one family which actually moved from California to England so that their son could study with an iconic Irish dancing champion.

In other ways, though, Jig is too reminiscent of films like Spellbound, documentaries which take some sort of competitive subgenre and then follow the same rote format in detailing the participants and then the competition itself. Like Spellbound and any number of similar properties, Jig travels around the world introducing us to several competitors in the upcoming fortieth “worlds,” as the entrants and their parents refer to the championship, spending a few minutes giving us a little background on each of them. We have the traditional Irish girl and her mostly friendly rivalry with another little girl of half-Irish descent from New York. We have the English boy bullied by his schoolmates for being gay, based on nothing other than his love of dance (okay, so he likes the shoes, too, but who’s counting?). There’s a Russian girl who dances in a troupe, and an American boy who is so promising that his parents moved him to England from California. These and several others are introduced by filmmaker Sue Bourne with just enough detail to give us some investment in their upcoming trials and tribulations. But there is little of the angst and outright parental drama (to mention just one example) that informed so much of Spellbound. These are for the most part extremely nice kids with concerned parents who in some cases are stretching their budgets to the breaking point to help their kids realize their dreams.

The second half of the film then goes to the actual competition, and it is here that Bourne both is “foot perfect” (to use a somewhat humorous description bandied about in the film) and perhaps slightly missteps. Bourne manages to wring a fair amount of drama and even anxiety out of the competition as rivalries, albeit mostly friendly ones, are tested, and the audience waits to see if their favorite kid ends up taking home a prize. (It should be noted that the prizes are for prestige only, as Irish dancing, as phenomenally popular as it has become guarantees little if any financial remuneration). But Bourne also at least partially scuttles her film by not featuring enough of the very subject she’s exploring, namely Irish step dancing. We’re thrust headlong into the competition without really knowing what’s going on (at least those of you, probably the majority, who aren’t experts on the subject). And then to make matters worse (although understandable from a filmmaking standpoint), Bourne repeatedly cuts away from the dancing to show us reaction shots, meaning we never get a really full, unedited idea of what any of the dances were ever about to begin with.

On the whole, though, Jig casts a rather compelling light on this event which has never before been seen by the public at large (Bourne was the first filmmaker allowed open access to the competition, something she feels may have taken so long to open its doors because of perhaps understandable fears on the part of the participants and organizers that they would be made fun of). The kids especially are adorable and a couple will probably melt most viewers' hearts. The only problem here, other than the predictable structure of the narrative, is that most of the people are just so darned nice. When there's no obvious villain, it's hard to know whom to root for.

Jig Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Jig steps onto Blu-ray with a very appealing looking AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Though this has all the hallmarks of a low budget verité outing, the image is decidedly crisper and much better saturated that most films of this ilk. Colors pop magnificently, especially with regard to the often outré outfits the women in particular wear. Fine detail is quite excellent throughout this presentation, again especially as far as the costumes go. The women's curly wigs also look bizarrely magnificent throughout the film. A couple of sequences, notably ones in a dimly lit dancehall in Russia and some of the competition footage which covers the audience which is largely in the dark, suffer from very minor crush, but otherwise this is a stellar looking presentation.

Jig Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There's good news and bad news with regard to Jig's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix. Let's get the bad news out of the way first: this is a documentary with a score by one of the most acclaimed contemporary composers working in film, Patrick Doyle, and yet there is precious little actual music throughout this enterprise, something really rather odd considering it deals with dance and should be stuffed to the gills with evocative reels and other ethnic music. On the plus side, there's brilliant fidelity here, though it's typically relegated to the onscreen confessionals by the participants and the clickety clack of little feet repeatedly hitting the dance floor. Surround channels are quite effectively used in the group dance sequences, and for some of Doyle's minimal score, but otherwise the dialogue (actually usually monologues) is resolutely anchored front and center.

Jig Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Guinness World Record Video (SD; 3:45) documents the 652 dancers who attempted to break the world record of jig dancing on July 3, 2011 in Nashville, Tennessee.
• Dziak Story (SD; 16:57) highlights the background of Mary Ellen Dziak, a young Chicago girl interested in Irish dancing, a trait shared by her entire family.
• Dresses Featurette (SD; 2:38) highlights some of the frankly outrageous costumes that the girls and women who compete wear.
• Commentary with John Carey and Director Sue Bourne. Carey is the former World Champion who is schooling the American boy in the film, and he provides a lot of the technical nuts and bolts of the dancing sequences shown in the film. Bourne obviously has her own particular fascination with the subject which comes through quite clearly in this chatty but very enjoyable commentary.

Jig Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Jig is a fascinating piece, and one that will probably have a strong shelf life in home video and cable broadcast markets. If Bourne doesn't break any new ground here, she at least presents the participants without any agenda, letting them tell their stories and then seeing how they do in the competition. The film might have been a bit more compelling with more context (something that the commentary helps to provide), and especially maybe with an outright horrid parent we could all loathe. As it is, this is by and large a group of dedicated youngsters, all of whom deserve to succeed. The Blu-ray looks and sounds great, and comes Recommended.