Niles North Filipino club awe their audience at Battle of the Bamboo by performing their dance, Sinulog, for the first time.

Battle of the Bamboo is an event hosted every year by University of Illinois at Chicago. This annual event gathers Filipino clubs from all over the midwest to competitively showcase the many cultural dances the Filipino culture has.

The club performed a dance called Sinulog which is a festive dance commemorating the Filipino culture’s origin and their acceptance of the Roman Catholicism. “It was really a struggle getting everything together. This was our first dance needing every single movement to be concise. We had schedule conflicts, people dropping out last minute, practice room problems, and basically any other problem you can possibly run in to. We were all drained physically and mentally. We finished the dance fully on the last day. I’m so proud of this club for coming out and putting pride into what we worked for” said senior Marko Dacpano.

Usually, Niles North perform in the exhibition round and captivate the audience with their tinikling skills. The NN Filipino club has been known for their tricks and creative routines for tinikling.

This year was the first year that they decided to stray away from their comfort zone and perform a different traditional dance. “Ever since my freshman year the only dance the NN Filipino club practiced was tinikling. We never really thought about performing other types of dances outside of school. So when I heard that the club was planning on performing a different kind of cultural dance it made me really proud of them” former Niles North graduate Gian Regacho said.

Although the club did not place in the competition, they definitely awed the crowd for their first time participating in the competition.

The Niles North Filipino club has definitely set the tone for their upcoming performances in the future BOTB competitions.