Episode 16 – The Tinikling Dancers
The Mabuhay Multicultural Community of Mparntwe (Alice Springs) presents The Tinikling Dancers. The Tinikling dance is one of the most popular folk dances in the Philippines. Traditionally, as rice crops near harvest time and after rainfall, bamboo traps are constructed by farmers in the fields to protect the rice from the Tikling birds. The mesmerising dance imitates the Tikling birds, leaping and weaving to avoid the bamboo traps. The dance originated during the Spanish colonial era between the 16th to 19th Centuries on the Island of Leyte. It is truly special to see it danced in the red sand of Central Australia!