Tanauan, Leyte is a local holiday. "Tinikling" is the most popular and best known of Philippine dances and honored as the Philippine national dance. It is one of the oldest Philippine traditional dances and originated in Leyte Province. The people of Leyte describe the tikling bird as one of the most unique in its movements - walking around and between the tree branches and some grass stems. This bird was named "tikling" from which the Tinikling dance got its name. Because of the creativeness of the Leytenos, they imitate this bird by using bamboo poles. In 2006, the attention of the then
Tinikling the Filipino villagers living in those regions during the Spanish period. Other Filipino folk dances of this category include "Sayaw sa Bangko", "Maglalatik", and "Pandanggo sa Ilaw". In the United States, this dance has been altered into a four-beat rhythm to adjust to popular music. In some cases, it has been used in conjunction with traditional Filipino martial arts to demonstrate fleetness of foot and flow of movement. As mentioned earlier, tinikling is used as aerobic exercise for physical education classes in the United States for grades K-12. Instead of using traditional bamboo poles, most schools create their poles using