Scottish Country Dancing Dictionary

The New Parliament House Jig

Scottish Country Dance Instruction

NEW PARLIAMENT HOUSE JIG (J3x64) 3 Men + 6 Ladies John Colville, 1980
2 chords: 1st chord Men honour Ladies on right, 2nd chord Men honour Ladies on left
Start:
6L  3M  3L
5L  2M  2L
4L  1M  1L
     Top

1- 8 Men join hands with Ladies on right in prom hold and 3 couples promenade round 1L, 2L and 3L
9-16 Men join hands with Ladies on left in prom hold and 3 couples promenade round 4L, 5L and 6L back to place
17-24 1M+2L+3M+5L circle 4H round and back
25-32 1L+3L+6L+4L circle 4H round and back
33-40 1M+2M+4L+5L dance LH across; 1M+2M+1L+2L dance RH across
41-48 2M+3M+2L+3L dance LH across; 2M+3M+5L+6L dance RH across
49-56 In 3 lines of 3 across - all dance RSh reels of 3 across (Men RSh to Lady on his right)
57-64 1L followed by 1M+4L cast round 2L, dance across set, cast round 6L and across set to form new bottom line (standing lines step up)

(MINICRIB. Dance crib compiled by Charles Upton, Deeside Caledonian Society, and his successors)


Dance Notes

Bars 17-32 centre Man (2M) may set (Highland steps) during circles.

(Dance notes by MINICRIB)


Keith Rose's Crib Diagrams


Dance Instruction Videos

The New Parliament House Jig - Scottish Country Dancing Instruction Video

Dance Information

This dance, The New Parliament House Jig, was devised in Australia and you may wonder why three gentlemen and six ladies dance it?

The middle gentleman is the Speaker of the Parliament, the other two gentlemen are the Territories in the country and the six ladies are the States that together make up Australia.


Parliament House is the meeting place of the Parliament of Australia, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia.

The building (now known as New Parliament House) was designed by Mitchell/Giurgola and Thorp Architects and built by a Concrete Constructions and John Holland joint venture (the winners of a two-stage competition started in 1978 by the Fraser government). It was opened on 9 May 1988 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia and cost more than A$1.1 billion to build.

Federal Parliament meetings were held in Melbourne until 1927. Between 1927 and 1988, the Parliament of Australia met in the Provisional Parliament House, which is now known as "Old Parliament House". Construction of Australia's permanent Parliament House was delayed while its location was debated. Construction of the new building began in 1981. The principal design of the structure is based on the shape of two boomerangs and is topped by an 81-metre (266 ft) flagpole.

Parliament House contains 4,700 rooms, and many areas are open to the public. The main foyer contains a marble staircase and leads to the Great Hall, which has a large tapestry on display. The House of Representatives chamber is decorated green, while the Senate chamber has a red colour scheme. Between the two chambers is the Members' Hall, which has a water feature and is not open to the public. The Ministerial Wing houses the Prime Minister's Office and other ministerial offices.

New Parliament House, Canberra, Australia
New Parliament House, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia


This page contains both original content, which is copyrighted, and excerpts from Wikipedia and other sources using the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Text from this original Parliament House, Canberra article on Wikipedia.
Image copyright John O'Neill, GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 only as published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts, via Wikimedia Commons.

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