Washington, DC -- 
The roaring crowd of the Washington Wizards and New York Knicks was breathtakingly entertained during the half time break
by the Philippine folk dance Tinikling courtesy no less than the Fil-Am Heritage Dance Ensemble of the Migrant Heritage
Commission (MHC) at the Verizon Center in downtown Washington, DC, Friday, March 1.
Earlier at the opening of the game, 13-year old Filipino-American Kriskatlin Zabala sung the American national anthem.
The dancers: Jolin and Kathleen Calaro, Matthew Aninzo, Joyce and Krishna Mata, Alex and John John Cabrera, Lex
Crisostomo, Neng Poliquit and Julie Quitoriano, hopped in and out of the bamboo poles blindfolded.
"That was scary." "How'd they do that?" "Magnificent," were among the remarks from an awed audience.
The dancers were all youth ambassadors for peace of the MHC. MHC co-executive director Grace Valera Jaramillo
choreographed the fast aversion of the Tinikling.
The tinikling dance, one of the most popular folk dances, in pre-Spanish Philippines 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 of the dance is taken after a bird called tikling, with the term tinikling literally meaning "tikling-like" as it
is an imitation of the tikling bird dodging bamboo traps set by rice farmers. The dance imitates the movement of the
tikling as they hop between grass stems, run over tree branches, or dodge bamboo traps.
Dancers imitate the tikling's speed by skillfully maneuvering between large bamboo poles.
MHC is a service institution for immigrants in the US, based in Washington, DC, and providing legal assistance, education and youth leadership programs, health support services, cultural development programs, and other social and community
outreach programs. (From the Migrant Heritage Chronicle www.migrantheritage.org)
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