He follows his heart with his feet

Photo provided to China Daily

"Most often, it's danced by the young, it's an occasion to mingle and ogle each other too," says Zhan, who only witnessed such dancing in the countryside when he was young.

Dancing through time

The passionate Yangko dance is also one of the nation's intangible cultural heritage items, which tells the story of crusading Manchurians on horseback. For the square dance, the same eight major moves (including charging, leaping, thumping and squatting) mimicking soldiers is the thing to watch.

"Most importantly, keep your heels above the ground (as if riding a horse)," Zhan says.

"Everyone can do it after watching for a bit," says Zhan, who now heads an amateur Manchurian Yangko troupe of 50 people. The group made to the finals of the Galaxy Awards. The troupe practices every week.

"There is no set music and no demanding moves, we dance for hours because we get into a trance," he says. "It's so simple, and all you need for a prop is a fan or handkerchief."

"The state we all desire is this - you dance but you forget you're dancing and go blank," he says. "While people watch us because the dance is uplifting, we are dancing because we are led by feelings from our leaping hearts."