 During the Song dynasty, footbinding began to spread among the elite in China, and the practice may have started during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period among female dancers.One story concerns the favorite concubine of the Southern Tang emperor Li Yu who bound her feet into the shape of the crescent moon and performed a lotus dance on the point of her feet ballet-fashion.While perhaps originating from dancing, footbinding which spread among elite women during the Song dynasty would also contribute to the decline of dance as an art form.