'The Left Foot Dance' in Mouding County, Yunnan Province Shows a Different Kind of Charm

In Mouding County, Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, there is a dance that has been passed down for thousands of years, which called the "left foot dance". This kind of dance is a combination of song, dance and music, and it gets its name because it starts with the left foot when dancing. In 2008, the "Left Foot Dance" was included in China's national intangible cultural heritage.

From Mouding County to migrant workers across the country, the "Left Foot Dance" lovers have spread their singing and dancing skills to big cities such as Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and Kunming. Happy figures in floral dresses dancing the "Left Foot Dance" can be seen everywhere, and the enthusiastic, unrestrained and happy singing and dancing forms are loved by everybody.

Mouding County vigorously inherits and promotes the excellent national culture headed by the "Left Foot Dance". At present, there are 56 intangible cultural heritage protection teams with more than 3,000 members and 146 representative inheritors at the national, provincial, state, and county levels, and 232 folk amateur performance teams.

In recent years, Mouding County has polished the cultural business card of "the hometown of the left foot dance", built 5 rural intangible cultural heritage protection and inheritance institutes, and established 3 "Left Foot Dance" inheritance training bases. Mouding County also hired representative inheritors to bring intangible cultural heritage culture into campuses and institutions, and create and popularize the "Left Foot Dance" exercises between classes and work, so that the "Left Foot Dance" culture can continue to be passed on from generation to generation.

In April 2022, Mouding County successfully held the 2022 China·Mouding "March Festival" Left Foot Dancing on the Cloud Cultural Festival, using an all-media network to organize the festival, and make every effort to create an "online event" that can participate, view and trade, presenting a wonderful feast of Yi ethnic group singing and dancing to viewers all over the country.

Mouding County encourages, supports, and organizes the "Left Foot Dance" performing arts companies and national cultural performing arts talents to participate in various song and dance performances, and went to Honghe, Pu'er and other places to carry out the "Cultural Caravan · Thousands of Towns and Miles" tour to benefit the people on behalf of the Department of Culture and Tourism of Yunnan Province.

Fei Mingrong, an inheritor of intangible cultural heritage in Chuxiong Prefecture, led the Yi people performance group "A Guai Lao" to win the silver award in the CCTV Youth Song Competition, and participated in cultural exchange activities such as performances abroad. The new repertoire of the "Left Foot Dance" written and performed by him has won many national, provincial and state awards.

In 2006, Mouding County was named the "Hometown of Yi People's Left Foot Dance" by the Yunnan Provincial Government; In 2021, Mouding County was named the "Hometown of Chinese Folk Culture and Art" by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the People's Republic of China; In 2009, 17,200 people participated in the "Left Foot Dance", which won the title of "The Largest Inline Dance" in the Guinness Book of World Records.

The "Left Foot Dance" culture of the Yi people in Mouding County is going out of Yunnan Province and out of China in various forms, demonstrating the unique national cultural confidence and unique charm. The urban and rural areas of Mouding are more prosperous, beautiful, rich and gorgeous because of the dance. (Article and Photos via Mouding County Multimedia Center)

The "Left Foot Dance" has become a public cultural activity in Mouding County [Photo via Mouding County Multimedia Center]

Enthusiastic "March Festival" [Photo via Mouding County Multimedia Center]

Thousands of people dance the "Left Foot Dance" together [Photo via Mouding County Multimedia Center]

People in the hometown of the "Left Foot Dance" rejoice together [Photo via Mouding County Multimedia Center]