Filipino dance makes a comeback in Juneau

Filipino dance teams was once an enormous deal in Juneau. There have been a number of troupes who practiced commonly and carried out on the Filipino Group Corridor. They even danced at highschool basketball video games. However that was 15 years in the past.

Participation waned over time, however David Abad, who grew up in Juneau’s Filipino neighborhood, needs to revive it. So he arrange a workshop at Juneau’s Zach Gordon Youth Heart referred to as Tinikling 101.

Tinikling is a conventional folks dance from the Visayas area of the Philippines. Two folks get on both finish of two lengthy bamboo poles and clap them collectively. Dancers bounce out and in of the poles in between claps, deftly conserving from getting their ankles whacked. They seem like the dance’s namesake tikling fowl attempting to keep away from a foot snare set by rice farmers.

Abad purchased the 8-foot lengthy bamboo poles for the workshop on Etsy.

“They have been actually onerous to seek out,” he mentioned. It was particularly onerous to get somebody to ship them to Alaska.

The clinic began with some inspiration. The group of a couple of dozen youngsters watched a video of a gaggle of school college students performing the dance to the tune “Dolla Signal Slime” by hip-hop artist Lil Nas X, reasonably than the normal Spanish rondalla. The choreography is actually spectacular. They’re quick on their toes, leaping out and in of the poles whereas spinning and even kneeling down between the poles for a cut up second earlier than escaping. The group within the video cheered, and so did the children watching on the clinic.

“These are my tinikling objectives,” Abad mentioned.

When it was time for the group to strive it out, Abad requested for volunteers to be the clappers — the individuals who faucet the poles twice on the bottom after which snap them collectively within the center.

“Once I was a dancer, I didn’t used to consider the clappers,” Abad mentioned. “However they’re so essential as a result of they get to regulate the velocity. They’re tremendous essential.”

It took awhile to get the rhythm down: Click on, click on, clap. Click on, click on, clap. However as soon as it bought going, you could possibly see it getting caught in everybody’s head.

Kay Roldan mentioned she might really feel it in her physique. She used to bounce with Abad again within the day, but it surely’s been no less than ten years since she’s finished it. This clinic was the primary time she’d seen anybody carry out the sticks in Juneau since she was a youngster.

Jennifer Lagundino introduced her 5-year-old daughter Daryl.

“Her dad is Filipino, and she or he’s been asking to study Filipino dance,” Lagundino mentioned.

Daryl sat in entrance of her mother and wrapped her tiny palms across the fats bamboo pole whereas they labored it collectively. But it surely wasn’t lengthy earlier than she wished to be the dancer, too. She mentioned she knew ballet already — and she or he was very mild on her toes as she jumped on her tiptoes out and in of the poles. She appeared immediately transformed.

The clinic lasted for 2 hours. Everybody tried each roles — clapper and dancer — a couple of instances. Folks have been sweaty and panting after their flip.

Abad was lit up. He needs folks to get again into tinikling. He needs to show and coach and choreograph for a troupe.

When he was younger, within the early 2000s, there have been no less than 50 Filipino youngsters who danced commonly. After they danced on the Filipino Group Corridor, he says they have been proud. However once they began dancing at highschool basketball video games and different non-Filipino areas, he mentioned it turned extra of a secret for him. He stopped dancing in highschool.

So the small crowd was inspiring to him. There wasn’t simply curiosity, there was enthusiasm — from Filipino youngsters and children who mentioned they have been “kinda” Filipino, and one who mentioned tinikling made them want they have been Filipino.

This story is a part of KTOO’s participation within the America Amplified initiative to make use of neighborhood engagement to tell and strengthen our journalism. America Amplified is a public media initiative funded by the Company for Public Broadcasting.