Tinikling more specifically refers to the Slaty-breasted Rail ("Gallirallus striatus"), the Buff-banded Rail ("Gallirallus philippensis"), and the Barred Rail ("Gallirallus torquatus"). The term "tinikling" literally means "to perform it 'tikling"-like." The dance originated in Leyte, an island in the Visayas in the central Philippines. It imitates the movement of the "tikling" birds as they walk between grass stems, run over tree branches, or dodge bamboo traps set by rice farmers. Dancers imitate the tikling bird's legendary grace and speed by skillfully maneuvering between large bamboo poles. Today tinikling is taught throughout the United States. In grades K-12 the dance is used
History of Chinese dance appear to be cumbersome and do not resemble modern form of the dance. Modern dragon dance uses light-weight structure manipulated by a dozen or so of men using poles at regular intervals along the length of the dragon, and some forms of the dragon can be very long and involve hundreds of performers. There are more than 700 different dragon dances in China. The lion dance has been suggested to have been introduced from outside China as lion is not native to China, and the Chinese word for lion itself, "shi" (獅), may have been derived from the Persian word