As noted earlier, the establishment of an independent Việt kingdom from the 10th century did little to suppress the interest of successive Việt rulers in the courtly traditions of their powerful northern neighbour, and in subsequent centuries Confucian music and dance traditions were increasingly appropriated from the Chinese imperial court.

The sinitic courtly performance tradition reached a peak during the reign of Lê Thái Tông (1434-1442). By this time, in emulation of contemporary Chinese practice, an entire corpus of ceremonial music had been devised, each branch carefully categorised according to its function. More important categories included trung cung chỉ nhạc ('palace music'), yên nhạc ('banquet music') and miếu nhạc ('Confucian temple music'). Court orchestras were also organised into nhã nhạc ('refined music') and đại nhạc ('great music') ensembles and court dances were defined as either văn vũ ('civil') or võ vũ ('military').

Amongst the various styles of royal dance (múa cung đình), the most solemn and intriguing was the bát dật, involving groups of 64 civil and 64 military dancers and presented latterly as an integral component of the annual sacrificial rites of the Nguyễn kings at Nam Giao Esplanade (Đàn Nam Giao) in Huế where, according to tradition, the monarch received endorsement for his heavenly mandate. This ceremony was partially re-enacted for the first time since the colonial era at the 2004 Huế Festival. However, the great majority of royal dances functioned to wish the sovereign and his family happiness, prosperity and longevity - such was the origin of the various forms of múa quạt (fan dance) and the numerous complex dance pieces devised for royal anniversaries, such as the tam tinh chúc thọ, the bát tiên hiến thọ and the lục triệt hoa mã đăng. Other royal dances, such as the tam quốc tây du ('Travels through the Three Western Kingdoms') or the nữ tướng xuất quân ('Departure of the Warrior') celebrated legendary or historical events. There also developed a number of important ritual dances dedicated to Buddha, including the dances lục cúng hoa đăng and song quang. In addition to instrumental accompaniment, many of these dances came with their own songs, performed by a small chorus.

From the turn of the 20th century onwards the royal court at Huế became increasingly westernised and accordingly during the reign of Bảo Đại (1925-1945), last of the Nguyễn monarchs, the traditional royal music and dance was rarely performed. Since the late 1980s it has been revived by the Thừa Thiên Huế Provincial Traditional Arts Company (Đoàn Nghệ thuật Truyền thống Tỉnh Thừa Thiên Huế), successor to the former royal troupe, and by the Huế Monuments Conservation Centre's Huế Royal Palace Arts Troupe (Đoàn Nghệ thuật Cung đình Huế).