The tinikling dance is one of the most popular and well-known of traditional Philippine dances.

i-L The
tinikling is a pre-Spanish from thePhilippings that involves two people beating, tapping, and sliding
bamboo poles on the ground and against each other in coordination with one or more dancers who step
over and in between the poles in a dance. The name is a reference to birds locally known as tik/ing,
which can be any of a number ofrail species; the term tinik/ing literally means "tikling-like. "L2The dance
originated in Leyte among the Visayan islands in the central Philippines as an imitation of the tikling bird
dodging bamboo traps set by rice farmers. The dance imitates the movement of the tikling birds as they
walk between grass stems, run over tree branches, or dodge bamboo traps set by rice farmers. Dancers
imitate the tikling bird's legendary grace and speed by skillfully maneuvering between large bamboo
poles. Legend says that Tinikling originated during the time when the Spaniards took over the
Philippines. Natives worked on large plantations under the control of the King of Spain. Those who didn't
work productively were punished by standing between two bamboo poles. For this traditional folk
dance, females wear a dress called balintawak or patadyong, and males wear a uniform called barong
tagalog. The balintawak are colorful dresses with wide arched sleeves and the patadyong is a pineapple
fiber blouse paired with checkered skirts. The barong tagalog uniform is usually lightweight long sleeved
shirts and worn with red trousers. Dancers wear no footwear while performing. Tinikling involves five
steps; during the first four steps, the dancers dance opposite each other, and during the last step, they
stait from the same side of the poles. The bamboo is also used as a percussive instrument as it is banged
against the ground (or a piece of wood to make it easier to hold) and each other in a pattern. The
bamboo has to be closed hard enough to make a sound, and the dancers must be quick enough to not
get their foot (or feet) caught. As the dance continues, the banging of the bamboo becomes faster and
harder, the sound of the clashing bamboo and the quickness of feet demonstrated by the dancers
thrilling and awing the crowd.

Maglalatik Maglalmi_k is danced to mimic the early battle against Christians and Moros to win coconut
meat or "latik" during the time of Spanish colonization. This is also performed to pay homage to the
town saint of Bifian, uqguna — San Isidro Labrador. This dance is divided into four parts: baligtaran,
palipasan, paseo and escaramusa. This is performed by all-male dancers who wear blue pants to
represent the Christians and red pant for the Moros. All dancers, however, have coconut shells mounted
on their body parts. Creative and colorful; these are some of the things that you can use to label the
Philippine dances that define its culture. And for sure you will not be disappointed, since the countrys
dances are all creative and colorful. An example is the Philippine dance called the 'Maglalatik' that is sure
to catch the fancy of those looking for a traditional dance that goes down to the basics, and of course a
dance that is colorful and festive. This dance is also called as 'Magbabao' which can mean 'the one using
the 'bao' and the 'bao' is the coconut shell. Throughout the dance, the viewers of the dance can expect
that most of the dance moves that will be performed by the dancers will focus on the use of these 'baos'
or the coconut shells and some of the noises or the music that will be used by the dance will be
generated by these coconut shells. This dance actually tells a story- and it depicts the fight between the
Moros and the Christians over the 'latik'. The 'latik' is the residue that is left after the coconut milk has
been cooked and boiled. This dance is composed ofa four part performance and the first two
performance of the dance is called as the 'Palipasan' and the 'Baligtaran . In these first two
performances, the dance will show the opposing squads in an intense battle. The last two parts of the
dance are the 'Paseo' and the 'Sayaw Escaramusa'. These two dances basically show the reconciliation
between the two groups and the dance steps of the dancers will show and suvgest that the opposing
groups are now in good terms. The two groups in this dance is the group of the Moros and the other
group is the group of the Christians. All dancers that participate in this classic dance are male and they all
harness and use the coconut shells. These shells are attached on many points of the body of the dancers-
in the chests, the backs, the thighs and the hips. The dancers will also hold their triangular formed
coconut shells in their hands and they used these shells to tap the coconut shells that are fitted on their
bodies and they use these to generate the music that will accompany them when they are dancing. The
Moros in this dance will wear the red trousers and the Christian group will wear the blue trousers. This
dance will involve some simple movements and simple repetitions.