Folk dance reflected thought, affection of people and encouraged the utterly dedicating to work, patriotism, which were foundation and typical character of the nation. Folk dance contains two genres: life dance and performance dance.

Life dance

Life dance attaching to daily life of people with so simple dance movements that easy to perform, having fascination and bringing about joy of living... had found favour with people at all levels. It used to be widely performed at grass cover, front house courtyard, edge of forest or wherever.

Mua xoe vong of Thai ethnic group is one of typical life dance and played an essential role in their life.

Background music for life folk dance is usually a folk song or a melody accompanied on instruments like drum, bronze horn, and traditional horn...

Performance dance

Along with life dance, performance dance is a genre of folk dance that occupied an important position in dance heritage. Performance dance inherited fine movements of life dance, which were developed and reached skillful level. Some typical performance works:

Múa nón/Hat dance – Thai ethnic group: This is dance of beautiful Thai girls dressing in Thai clothes (orange dresses with butterfly-shape buttons).
Múa Kata/Kata dance – Kata ethnic group
Múa Sạp/Bamboo pole dance – Muong ethnic group
Múa Then/Then dance – Tay ethnic group
Múa chàm rông/Cham rong dance – Cham ethnic group
Múa trống bồng, múa quạt/Drum dance, fan dance – Viet ethnic group.