Nuo is a religious, artistic, social and cultural phenomenon with a long history in China traditional culture. Nanfeng Nuo Dance is known as "the living fossil of ancient folk dance in China". According to records, Wu Rui, the king of Changsha in the early Han Dynasty, preached in Nanfeng Xixiang. In the eighth year of Tang Kaiyuan (720), Nanfeng County moved here, and the Grand Ceremony of Tang Kaiyuan promulgated at that time promoted the spread of Nanfeng Nuo. The Song Dynasty is the development period of Nanfeng Nuo Opera. The indoor musicians and diaspora artists in the Song Dynasty brought the culture and art of Kyoto, which made Nanfeng Nuo Opera mature. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Nanfeng Nuo was further improved, and in the late Qing Dynasty, influenced by China traditional opera, "Xiang Nuo" was further entertained, and many new Nuo dance programs were compiled and performed. On the eve of the founding of New China, there were hundreds of Nuo classes in Nanfeng, scattered in various towns and villages.

Nanfeng Nuo dance, commonly known as dancing Nuo dance, is a folk dance of Han nationality, following the ancient ritual of exorcising ghosts and epidemics, and gradually evolved after years of reform and innovation. Tracing back to the source, there are Nuo records in the written history of China. There is a word "Kou" in Oracle Bone Inscriptions of Yin Ruins, which is a form of playing tricks indoors with an ancient weapon. In the records of dancing figures in Oracle Bone Inscriptions, there is a word "Ji", which is the image of a masked person; It shows that there was masked exorcism dance before Shang Dynasty. Later, it was recorded in The Analects of Confucius, Lu Chunqiu and Zhou Li. The Book of Rites describes Nuo in more detail. In the Han Dynasty, Zhang Heng's Ode to Tokyo also described the Nuo dance. From the Han Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty, Nuo dance was a sacrificial dance to exorcise epidemic ghosts. After the Song Dynasty, Nuo dance added entertainment elements and gradually developed in a dramatic direction.