Our local Punjabis had a similar dance, with sticks and bells, two rows, heys and so on. Not sure if that came from any ancient common ancestor, or simply that there's a limited number of things people can do with dance.

I am a scholar of Punjabi dance, so if you care to elaborate I might be able to fill in details.

As with other things, it doesn't help to carelessly lump all types of dance from any time and place together. Punjabi writers have pulled a similar trick when casually opining about dances—a desire to vaguely connect present to distant past—and as one result there is practically no historiography of dances in the Punjab region. Several of the Punjabi dances known today can be dated, by name at least, to the mid-18th century. However, most have been re-invented (or at least folklorized almost beyond recognition) in the last 60 years.

I'd be interested to know what is meant by "our local Punjabis." Who is "us"? Does each locale have its local Punjabis? In what context are you seeing it? And when you say they "had" a dance, does this mean it is in the past and gone?

My interest is piqued because Punjabi stick-dances are not typically seen often outside certain parts of Pakistan.