Left Feet Dance or Zuojiaowu Dance of Yi Ethnic Minority in Mouding County, Chuxiong
Overview
Left Feet Dance（左脚舞） is a traditional dance of Yi people, and Mouding county（ 牟定县） is the hometown of Left Feet Dance. The Left Feet Dance has a history of more than 1,000 years, and the March Meeting（三月会） has a history of nearly 400 years. The Left Feet Dance has been inherited for thousands of years. It is the most popular and most influential Yi dance in the area where Yi people gather in Yunnan, and is regarded as a “living fossil of Yi culture.”
Left Feet Dance Yi Ethnic Minority in Mouding CountyIntangible Cultural Heritage
In June 2006, Yunnan Provincial Government named Mouding County as “Hometown of the Left Feet Dance of Yi Minority“. In August 2008, the State Council of China listed the Mouding Yi left feet dance as a national intangible cultural heritage. There is a saying in Mouding that “when you walk, you dance with your left foot. When you talk, you sing with left foot tune.”
The Left Feet Dance Cultural Festival in MoudingWhether in the festival or leisure time, local people will form a circle of dozens or even hundreds of people to dance left feet dance. With clattering string sound, and a sonorous clear melody, they sometimes twist their waist, sometimes fold their feet, sometimes swing leg to foot, sometimes wave hands and turn around, the steps are neat and uniform,the dance is light and graceful.
