--- title: "Tinikling which foot first" description: "Tinikling which foot first depends on the sheet you were given. A facing clip can swap that entry." canonical_url: "https://dancermirror.com/guides/practise-tinikling-on-the-correct-foot" md_url: "https://dancermirror.com/guides/practise-tinikling-on-the-correct-foot.md" last_updated: "2026-10-24" status: published --- # Tinikling which foot first Tinikling which foot first is a question two school sheets answer differently. One classroom starts the basic step on the right. Another steps the left foot forward on count 1. The sheet you were handed wins. A clip of a dancer facing you can show you the other entry, and the poles will not negotiate. **Short answer.** Tinikling which foot first depends on the sheet your class uses. One teaching taps the right foot in first. Another steps the left foot forward on count 1 and enters on the right. Copying a front-facing video can swap that entry, and a wrong entry meets the poles on the close. Mark the foot on the floor with tape before you use bamboo. Cariñosa is a different dance with its own figure list. Dancer Mirror does not download videos. - School sheets do not agree on the first foot. Follow the one you were given. - Practise the feet with tape on the floor before the bamboo moves. - A common cariñosa figure list starts three-steps-and-point on the right. Yours may differ. **Takeaway.** Tape the poles on the floor before anyone brings bamboo together. Read the start foot from your sheet. Cariñosa figures name their own start, and they are not tinikling. ## Which sheet did you get? A music-room lesson often starts the basic step by tapping the right foot between the poles, then stepping right, left, right. A physical-education sheet used in schools has a different basic: step the left foot slightly forward on count 1, then the right foot between the poles. Both are real classes. Neither is 'the' tinikling. If you mix them because a video looked clearer than your handout, you will be a count early and the poles will close on an ankle. Put the handout next to the phone. Read the first foot. Do it once, outside any poles, and point at the words. If the video disagrees, the handout wins unless your teacher filmed the video and said it replaces the handout. A stranger's clip does not replace the handout. A right-foot start, as one classroom teaches it, is written up by [Mrs Stouffer](https://mrsstouffersmusicroom.com/tinikling-a-philippine-folk-dance/). If your sheet says left, your sheet is not wrong. It is a different basic. 1. Read the first foot on your sheet. 2. Mark two lines of tape on the floor, pole-width apart. 3. Dance the entry on the tape until it is dull. 4. Only then let two people move real poles, slowly. 5. If the video and the sheet disagree, stop and ask. Do not average them. ## When do the poles come out? Late. Tape does not slam. Friends with bamboo do. The rhythm is the dangerous part: poles apart, apart, together, or the reverse, depending on the count your class uses. Your feet have to be outside when the poles meet. Practising that with tape teaches the feet without teaching anyone a flinch. When you do use poles, the people on the poles are dancing too. If they rush the close, a clean entry still loses. Count out loud with them. If you cannot hear the count over the music, the music is too loud for learning. Turn it down. Pride is how ankles get stories. ## Cariñosa names its own start Cariñosa is not a softer tinikling. There are no poles. There is a partner, a fan or a handkerchief in some versions, and a string of figures. One widely copied figure, three steps and point, begins on the right foot to the right, then repeats to the left. Another teacher's arrangement may start elsewhere. Read the figure list you were given, figure by figure. Do not inherit tinikling's argument about count 1. A front-facing clip of a couple swaps the boy's right and the girl's right differently, because they face each other. Check the first figure's start foot against the list, then check which way the girl stands relative to the boy. Cultural-night blocking cares about that picture. The feet can be right and the formation still backwards. ## A borrowed clip and a deadline School shows and cultural nights share a panic: the person who knows the dance is in another city, and the clip arrives late. You still do not get to invent the entry. Write the foot on a paper taped to the wall. New dancers read the paper, not the group chat's latest theory. Costumes with long skirts hide the feet from the audience and from you. Practise once in the skirt, or in a scarf tied to imitate the hem, so you know whether you can see your own ankle. If you cannot, you need the tape lines more, not less. ## The file is the class file Dancer Mirror does not download videos. A festival performance filmed from the audience is a bad teacher of the entry, because you cannot see the feet and the poles are already a blur. Use the practice clip your teacher sent, or film your own class with permission. What a mirror does to left and right, before you apply it to poles, is [how to mirror a dance video](https://dancermirror.com/guides/how-to-mirror-a-dance-video). Flip only after the sheet has named the foot. ## Sources - [What the app does today](https://dancermirror.com/features) - [How it works](https://dancermirror.com/how-it-works) - [Mrs Stouffer, tinikling basic starting on the right](https://mrsstouffersmusicroom.com/tinikling-a-philippine-folk-dance/) - [Tinikling, overview](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinikling) Practise the side you see. Download from the stores linked on the download page.