Maglalatik: Coconut-Shell Percussion from the Philippines

Maglalatik is a Filipino dance from Biñan, Laguna, in which dancers strike coconut-shell halves attached to their hands and body, acting out a fight over latik, a coconut treat. In pairs and groups, students build a percussion dance that trains rhythm and coordination.

How to play

1. Background and exploring: a cup in each hand, tap cup to cup, then lightly on the thigh and chest, looking for sounds (5 min).
2. Eight-count base pattern: two cup taps, right thigh, left thigh, two cup taps, chest, rest (6 min).
3. Pairs facing each other: add taps on your partner's cups, right with right, then left with left (6 min).
4. Traveling: the pattern with a side step, switching partners every two rounds (5 min).
5. Groups of six create a 32-count sequence with two formations and perform it (8 min).

Rules

• Body taps are gentle: the cups make the sound, not the hit.
• Never tap your partner's body, only cup to cup.
• Keep an arm's length between pairs.
• During performances, everyone else listens and claps at the end.

Variations

Adaptations

• Deaf or hard-of-hearing students: follow the partner's pattern visually while someone marks the one with a raised hand.
• Students with limited mobility: do the pattern seated on cups, thighs and armrests.
• Hand or wrist injury: one cup only, tapping on the open palm of the other hand.

Learning goals

• Keep a body-percussion pattern going with a partner.
• Create a 32-count group sequence.
• Learn about a traditional Philippine dance and its story.

Equipment for a class of 25

• pairs of hard plastic cups: 30
• speaker: 1

Teacher tip

No coconuts? Hard plastic cups or yogurt cups reinforced with tape sound great. It was traditionally danced by men; in class the whole group dances it, which is worth talking about.

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