The gigue (/ʒiːɡ/; French pronunciation: [ʒiɡ]) or giga (Italian: [ˈdʒiːɡa]) is a lively baroque dance originating from the British jig. It was imported into France in the mid-17th century and usually appears at the end of a suite. The gigue was probably never a court dance, but it was danced by nobility on social occasions and several court composers wrote gigues.
A gigue is usually in 3
8 or in one of its compound metre derivatives, such as 6
8, 6
4, 9
8 or 12
8, although there are some gigues written in other metres, as for example the gigue from Johann Sebastian Bach's first French Suite (BWV 812), which is written in 2
2.