Can you say Tininkling?

Honored as the Philippine national dance, Tinikling is a favorite in the Visayan islands, especially on the island of Leyte. The dance imitates the movement of the tinikling birds as they walk between grass stems, run over tree branches, or dodge bamboo traps set by rice farmers. Dancers imitate the tinikling bird's legendary grace and speed by skillfully maneuvering between large bamboo poles.

This picture to the right shows what the dancers would wear when they perform for an audience. The pictures below are of the Filipino American Student Association (FASA) practicing for the culture show coming up in April.

The students in FASA started practicing a few weeks ago; the exact date of their culture show is April 18th--please feel free to come out and enjoy phenomenal performances put together by the students themselves!
The FASA group practices at least 3 days a week; and right now they're just working on cultural dances, they haven't even gotten to the scripts yet. As you can tell, this show takes a lot of time, dedication, and man power to put it all together.

To the left, JD (President of FASA) and Emmy (active member) are standing and listening to the music in order to know when to jump over the bamboo sticks. JD is a Senior and has been actively involved with FASA since his Freshman year. Emmy is a Freshman and recently got involved with FASA last semester. They both joined FASA because their culture is very important to them, they also thought it would be a great way to meet new people and get involved at ODU.

Now, this may look easy to you....but I can guarantee that it's NOT! Some people might say, "how hard can jumping in and out of bamboo sticks be?" The dancers just make it look easy, when in reality it's a bit scary. Since the dance is performed barefoot, it is likely to be "clacked" throughout all the practicing. "Clacked" means that your foot gets slammed on with the 2 sticks if you don't watch where your feet are going. Not only can the dancers get but the clackers are prone to being injured also. Usually, if the dancers accidentally step on the bamboo stick while the clackers are clacking, it will somehow slam their hand to ground. So imagine the bamboo stick pinning your hand to ground and pinching the skin of your hand...OUCH!!



Not only is Tinikling a great traditional cultural dance, it's also a great work out for your legs! By the end of each practice everyone's legs-mainly calves-are sore. The dancers must stay on their toes at all times due to the speed of the steps, which really works your calve muscles. As you can see in the picture to the left JD has been working his out.

I know this might seem very hard to imagine in your head, so I recorded the students practicing so you could see for yourself.


The video shows JD and I practicing the dance; towards the end you can see that I mess up and almost get clacked with the bamboo sticks. EEEEK! I hope you all enjoy watching the video!