The Cigarette Box Dance is from the Yi ethnic group.
The Cigarette Box Dance of the Yi people in Shiping, also known as "Tiao Xian", "Long Yan", etc., is a mass folk dance of the Nisu Po, a branch of the Yi people in Yunnan. It spread in the Yi inhabited areas of Gejiu, Shiping, Jianshui, Mengzi, Kaiyuan, Tonghai, Yuanjiang and other places in southern Yunnan. It matured during the Yuan and Ming Dynasties and reached its peak during the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China. During the dance, each person holds a bamboo or kapok locust cigarette box in each hand and dances, so it is named after it.
The Yi people also call the Cigarette Box Dance "Tiao Xian", "Tiao Le", "Tiao Xin", etc. The Yi people love the Cigarette Box Dance very much, and both children and the elderly love to dance it. People say: "When you hear the sound of the four strings, your feet will feel itchy."
The Cigarette Box Dance of the Yi people includes two parts: sine and miscellaneous strings, forming two styles and multiple genres in mountainous areas and dam areas. There are as many as 220 sets of routines, and only 117 sets have been collected and compiled, including 62 sets of sine and 55 sets of miscellaneous strings. The dance forms include pas de deux, trio dance and group dance. The dancers hold old round wooden cigarette boxes that hold firewood, and with the accompaniment of four strings, they hit the bottom of the box and dance rhythmically. The rhythm is bright and the atmosphere is warm.