Dance history in China

Dance is a sport and art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting.
The earliest forms of dance in China grew out of religious rituals and drunken masked dances- and courtship festivals and developed into a form of entertainment patronized by the court.
In ancient times, dance was regarded as kind of physical exercise that help harmonise the body and mind. It was incorporated into confucian rituals and military exercises.
In the Tang Dynasty dances and music styles from outside of China were incorporated into Chinese dance and Chinese styles were passed onto other parts of the world, particularly Korea and Japan. Hundreds of young men and women were trained in dance and music at a school called the Academy of the Pear Garden. Tang poets wrote of “the dance of the rainbow skirt and feathered jacket” and described how dancer used their long silk sleeves to accentuate their hand movements. This kind of sleeve dancing was also depicted in Buddhist cave art from this period. After the Tang dynasty the custom of foot binding began to take root. This was a severe blow for women dancers. It is difficult to walk, let alone dance with bound feet.
Dance was widely promoted and utilized for propaganda purposes in the 1950s. A typical dance troupe performed a Lotus Dance, a dance infused with Russian folk-style dance steps, a comical lion dance, a trick wrestling bout and a classical sword dance. Such troupes often served to draw a crowds that were then indoctrinated with some kind of Communist message. These troupes also traveled around the world and later incorporated elements of Cambodian, Burmese, Indonesian and Ethiopian dances.
Dance in the Cultural Revolution was labeled as "bourgeois and decadent" and discouraged. Ballet and Western-style dancing were singled out for particularly vitriolic condemnation. Instead people were entertained with “revolutionary ballets” like The Red Detachment of Women and The White Haired Girl, both put together under the supervision of Jiang Qing, Mao’s wife and Gang of Four member. Nixon was entertained with a performance of The Red Detachment of Women when he made his historic first trip to China. Chinese who grew up in the Cultural Revolution do not know how to dance because dancing then was mostly banned.