VIRGINIA BEACH — More than 30 people — mostly teenagers — performed a Filipino folk dance on the beach Saturday morning during Fil Fest USA, a celebration of the Filipino American community.
“Sway right. Left turn. We’ve got the sound of the bamboo to keep our rhythm,” said Rachel Crist Lizan, who called out the moves over a microphone on the Boardwalk. In the sand below, barefoot girls and boys took turns hopping over and in between pairs of clapping bamboo poles.
“The hardest part is not getting your feet clipped when the bamboo clicks,” said Caroline Sison, 16, a Tallwood High School student.
While they didn’t have nearly enough people show up for an attempt to break a tinikling world record, the dancers enjoyed the experience.
“I just had so much fun,” said Danielle Banaag, 16, also a student at Tallwood. “Just doing it is part of my culture that I get to learn in the U.S.”
She and other members of the Tallwood Filipino Cultural Club have been practicing the dance moves leading up to the event. Tinikling is the national dance of the Phillipines. It mimics the movements of tikling birds dodging bamboo traps set by farmers.
The dance event was part of the weekend-long Fil Fest USA lineup, which includes craft and food vendors, live music and lumpia eating contests at Rudee Loop. It continues through Sunday.
FilFest organizers had hoped to break the Guinness World Record for the largest number of tinikling dance participants, which would have required more than 344 people. Even though they missed that goal, they succeeded in recruiting new students from across the city to learn the dance, said Naomi Estaris, Fil Fest director.
“It’s really to allow them to celebrate the culture, to know the traditions,” she said. “We want to make sure the baton is passed where they are continuing those traditions, the culture, the heritage.”
Stacy Parker, 757-222-5125, stacy.parker@pilotonline.com
