The Golden Pheasant Dance is the major dance form of the Miao ethnic group during their ancestor worship activity held every twelve years, and it is often performed during the wedding ceremony, guest reception etiquette, and the "moon dance" of young men and women.
The Golden Pheasant Dance is often accompanied by Lusheng (a reed-pipe wind instrument). When performing the dance, the females usually do their hair up into a high bun, with pheasant-shaped silver headwear pinned on it; they often dress up like beautiful pheasants: wearing embroidered accordion pleated miniskirts, embroidered shoes with curled-up toe cap, and a whole set of silver necklace and bracelets. Men play lusheng leading the way, while women follow behind in a line, dancing in a circle counter-clockwise. With the accompaniment of the tunes from lusheng instrument, the pheasant headwear on the head seems to fly up, the silver cornered hat sways, the flower ribbons tied to the legs flutter, the white feathers at the skirt hemline turn up and down, and the dancers move with light steps, which looks like pheasants foraging in a leisured manner. The dance movements have various types: three-step, four-step, seven-step, etc, with four-step as the major one, and six-step to turn around the body. The natural movement of waist and knees is the basic feature. For each step, the dancers would have both knees quiver forward naturally, the lower limbs moving greater, the upper ones lesser, and both hands falling on both sides naturally, swaying leisurely. When the dancers are in a large number, the lusheng players would play and dance in a circle in the middle, while the female dancers dance in the outer circle. The lusheng tunes of the Golden Pheasant Dance have as many as over 100, all of which sound smooth and pleasant to the ear.