Tang Dynasty, 618-906 AD. A group of ceramic figures comprising: one standing female dancer, one arm raised above her head, the other by her side, wearing a floor-length robe with long sleeves, her hair dressed in a bun; a male figure standing on an integral base, head turned to his right, arms held against chest, hands clasped together, wearing a tunic, boots and a cap; red, green and black painted pigment surviving on both figures. 990 grams total, 28.5cm each (11 1/4"). From the collection of an American lady living in London; acquired before 2000. There is a long recorded history of various forms of dance in China. Some Chinese dances today, such as dancing with long sleeves have been recorded since the very early periods, dating from at least as early as the Zhou Dynasty. The most important dances of the early period were the ritual and ceremonial music and dances called yayue, and these dances were performed at the imperial court until the Qing dynasty, but only survive today as performances in Confucian ceremonies. The art of dance reached a peak in the Tang Dynasty, and the dances of the period were highly diverse and cosmopolitan, dances from Central Asia in particular were popular. A great number of dances were recorded in the Tang dynasty, for example there are over sixty Grand Compositions alone which are large scale performances from the Tang court, and there were tens of thousands of musicians and dancers at the Imperial palaces. The art of dance however declined after the Tang dynasty. This is due in part to the increasing popularity of the practice of footbinding, which may have first arisen from dancers themselves, but later tighter binding limited their movements, and greater social restriction placed on women may have also led to a virtual elimination of female dancers. [2]