Many people may not have heard about Tari Tepuk or Clap Dance for kids. The dance, which is specially intended to be performed by kids in preschools and kindergartens, was created in March 2009. However, most kindergartens and preschools in Probolinggo have introduced and taught this dance to their students.
Having simple moves and approximately 5-8 minutes' duration, the dance can be easily performed by kids aged about 5 years. As the name suggests, Tari Tepuk mainly consists of hand-claps, which is one of the most frequent and the most preferred activities among kids. This dance was created to help TK (Kindergartens) and RA (Preschools) train and develop children's motor skills, both gross and fine motor skills. The creators believe that this dance can help balance children's right and left brain abilities.
Tari Tepuk was introduced for the first time in public during the celebration of National Kids' Day in Kraksaan park (Alun-alun Kraksaan), Probolinggo, on Monday 15 June 2009. There were as many as 783 kindergarten and preschool children from Probolinggo regency performing the new dance.
Sugeng Suprisayoga from Dinas Pendidikan Kabupaten Probolinggo, who is also one of the creators of Tari Tepuk, stated that Tari Tepuk was born in March 2009 from the brilliant ideas of Probolinggo artists and Bina Tari Bayu Kencana Kota Probolinggo led by Peny Priyono.
For the background music, Tari Tepuk uses traditional musical instruments which are very popular in Probolinggo such as hadrah, glipang and the gamelans. There is no specific costume associated with Tari Tepuk, allowing a wide area of creativity in designing the dancers' costumes for schools to explore.
The above video was taken during the farewell party in PAUD (preschool) Tunas Mulia, Perum Probolinggo Indah/Asabri, Probolinggo yesterday (Wednesday, 15 June 2011). In the video, my beloved 4.5-year-old daughter, Jauzaa Alya Neuvarialda, who will be entering kindergarten soon, was dancing in the front row. She is the tallest and, I think, the most active of the four young dancers. In my opinion, she's probably the most beautiful.
