Tap-tap-slide...

This type of dance is called Tinikling orginated from the Philippines. It involves people from both ends hitting bamboo poles, on the ground & against each other, in a rythum Tap, tap, slide.

On the bigggg day...we tried to set this activity up at around 8:00pm when there is more people during the event. At first, people were curious and is wondering if people are performing the dance in front of them, so they were a little anxious and they just stood on the side. So what we do is, we started to show some easy steps to them, and start asking them to be part of it.

People gets easily excited because they can take the challenge in different ways. For those who does not like dancing or do not know how to dance, they may just simply give a try, as long as their feet is trapped in the bamboo, but they didn't noticed the trick part of the song. The beat would always go faster and faster as the song proceeds. The growing beats seemed to be a challenge for them, but for some of them who managed to follow the beats, they started helping each other out.

The spirit is growing while the beat is getting faster! People who dances on the same poles began to help each other other out, they start to communicate and have more interactions! Some are trying to count the beat for the other, others are somehow holding hands to prevent from the other person getting cramped in the bamboos.

This is kind of rare occasion when people are sober but at the same time becomes very open about themselves. Americans may find it very normal with people holding hands, but 'holding hands' in public for asians' belief seemed to be something that people would not really do for the most part, even for people who are in a relationship. It is very good to see the Asians from different groups starting to interact, though everyone has very different traditions and rituals to follow in their own ethnicity.

However, everyone seemed to have a lot of fun and started improvising their steps, and here comes the creative part, and we're starting to see art, while seeing people experience, grow excited and be very creative, breaking down the barriers.