 As Chinese opera became increasingly popular, there was also a corresponding decline in dance as an individual separate art form.Even by the Ming dynasty, pure dance was already becoming uncommon outside of folk traditions and group performances during festivals, and would become increasingly rare.Dance performances by females, already in decline due to the practice of footbinding as well as other social restrictions, also faced bans in later periods, for example women were forbidden to perform in Beijing theatre by the Qianlong Emperor during the Qing dynasty, and males therefore replaced female theatre roles and dance parts.