Jigging workshops invite dancers to experience Métis culture

By Troy Bannerman - Lethbridge Herald Local Journalism Initiative Reporter on April 12, 2023.

Herald photo by Troy Bannerman Brittany Lee will be hosting a jigging workshop today at the Galt Museum and another at the Lethbridge Public Library later this month.

The Galt Museum and Archives and the Lethbridge Public Library this month will host jigging workshops by Brittany Lee.

She will be at the Galt Museum today from 6 until 8 p.m. as part of a Métis Music and Membership program. Lee will also do a workshop at the Lethbridge Public Library’s main branch on Sunday, April 23 from 2 to 3:30 p.m. in the Eagle’s Nest.

“I really started doing it when the pandemic hit. We were stuck at home for a good year – the kids and I would be out in our backyard practicing. I probably listened to the Red River Jig 90 times from different people. But we would practice and so then I kind of honed in on my basic step a little more. And it was lovely because of the videos – when we’re at home, we can watch the ones from like the ’70s. They were in the really big poofy skirts,” said Lee in a recent interview.

“I watched those videos quite a bit to see. And then really just took a nosedive into it and started realizing how much I love doing the jig and dances. We would do the Rabbit Dance in the backyard, too, and we’d invite our neighbours over and teach them and that was fun. So then the kids started getting very interested in it. And I wanted to know a little bit more about putting my own spin on it. Making it a little bit more relaxed because I love watching jiggers but I really like to feel the music and do it for reasons other than showing others: it is to feel the music down in my heart.”

Lee’s workshop at the Galt will blend music and dance with a fiddle player in what she calls “a beautiful workshop.”

After some musical excerpts, Lee will teach some basic steps then some games will be played to get attendees relaxed and excited, before moving into group and other dances.

The library event will be a bigger workshop with about an hour-and-a-half devoted just to jigging and dances.

“I’m going to have an expanded curriculum for that workshop to expand on the dances that we touched on at the Galt. So if some of the same people come, they will get a more in-depth understanding of the dances and be able to try some of them out,” Lee said.

Lee said she’s always been a dancer, “kind of self-taught. . .A lot of the times I would watch others do tap dancing at first. I really enjoyed watching tap dancing and Riverdance. And I would try to pretend to do that. And then once I realized that I wasn’t going to be a dancer, I started honing in on jigging because I didn’t see anybody else doing it here.”

Lee used to be a swimming coach so she says it’s in her nature to teach others.

“I really like to share, share knowledge, share my joy, my passions to help other people find that joy and passion as well,” said Lee.