Â鶹APP

10 Unbelievable Facts about Dai Ailian

Dai Ailian was a Chinese dancer and an important figure in the modern history of dance in China.

She was born in 1916 into an overseas Chinese family living in . and passed on February 9th 2006.

1. Dai Ailian’s work helped build a generation of dancers and choreographers in China

Author; CEphoto, Uwe Aranas- Wikimedia

Dai’s years as a dance teacher and educator helped China build a generation of dancers, choreographers, and educators.

She is known in China as the “Mother of Chinese Modern Dance” because of her contributions to the field of dance in China.

This includes her early articulation of three core commitments that shaped dance in China during the second half of the twentieth century.

2. Performed in concerts to help raise funds

Author; Galeno- Wikimedia

In 1937, Dai performed in benefit concerts in London organized by the China Campaign Committee to raise funds for the Hong Kong-based China Defense League, which was headed by , wife of .

After reading the book  by during the Japanese invasion of China, she travelled to Hong Kong with the help of Soong in 1940.

After Hong Kong was attacked by Japan, she traveled to mainland China, where she participated in charity concerts and studied Chinese folk dances and operas.

She created pieces based on folk traditions such as ‘The Drum of the Yao People’ and ‘The Old Piggybacking the Young.’

This was in line with her theorizing that dance should be rooted in local performance forms. Apart from creating, choreographing, performing dance pieces, she also taught dance all over China.

3. Dai pushed for the creation of dance institutions in China after it became a people’s republic

Beijing Dance Academy- Author Sun8908- Wikimedia

After the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, Dai Ailian was at the center of the push to create new dance institutions.

In 1949 she was named deputy director of the Central Song and Dance Ensemble, and in 1954 she became the principal of the new Beijing Dance Academy. She also served as director and adviser to the , and was the vice-chairman of the Chinese Dancers’ Association.

This period also saw the broadening of her artistic path.  For instance, in the early 1950s, she became involved in the first ballet to be created in China: ‘Dove of Peace,’ and was its leading performer in the piece.

Dances with strong national flavor she created based on her studies of Chinese traditional dances, such as the ‘Lotus Flower Dance,’ ‘Flying Apsaras,’ ‘Longing for Home,’ ‘The Mute Carries the Cripple,’ ‘Tibetan Spring,’ ‘Anhui Folk Dance,’ and ‘For Sale,’ became her trademark works.

Two dances in particular, Dance of Lotus Flowers (based on a  folk dance) and Flying Apsaras (inspired by the ), received acclaim both at home and abroad and were awarded the gold prize at the .

These two dances were designated classics of 20th century Chinese dance by authoritative dance organizations in the 1990s.

4. She was active in international dance communities

Author; Leonard G- Wikimedia

During the  (1966–1976), performances of classical dances as well as some folk dances were not allowed in China.

After it ended, China opened up to the world the 1980s, Dai again became influential in Chinese dance circle and was active in the international dance communities.

She introduced renowned dancers such as  and  to teach in China, and she also promoted Chinese dancers around the world.

Starting in the 1980s, she led Chinese dance troupes to international dance competitions, worked as a judge in many such international events, and attended many international dance forums.

5. Dai Ailian choreographed her own solo dance

Author; U.S. Department of Agriculture- Wikimedia

Upon being selected, she adopted the surname Dai, after her father’s nickname and went on to take modern dance and even developed her skill under the mentoring of Rudolph von Laban.

While in London, she choreographed her own solo performance in 1936 called ‘Yang Giufei’ which was based on the historical character.

The following year in 1937, she partook in a fund-raising event organized by the China Campaign Committee in London of which the beneficiary was the China Defense League which was based in Hong Kong.

6. Ailian left quite a legacy behind

During her later years, she served as a judge on international competitions and was even appointed as UNESCO’s vice-chairman for the International Council of Dance in 1982.

She also served as an official at the cultural and educational organ of the United Nation of which she attended the annual council meeting in Â鶹APP every year until her death in 2006.

7. Started dancing at a very young age

Photo by Ricardo Moura on Unsplash

When Dai was five, one of her cousins who was studying dance in Britain visited Trinidad. Her cousin, soon after finding that the little girl was very good at expressing the rhythm of music with her body language, taught Ailian some basic ballet moves.

When Dai was six or seven years old, she began to perform children’s dance on the school’s stage. At 10, she choreographed and performed a dance by herself called Colored Egg , according to the Easter custom.

Upon her mother’s persistence, Dai was accepted as a student of a white teacher’s student despite serious racial discrimination at the time.

8. Did odd jobs to support her dancing

In 1930, she went to London to study dance. Though ballet and modern dance were not well connected at that time, Dai Ailian learned both of them, which greatly helped in her later development.

Misfortunes struck six years into Dai’s stay in Britain. Her father gambled away all the money and could no longer support Dai and her sisters in London.

Dai’s eldest sister had married in London, and her other sister went back to Trinidad. But out of her love for dance, Dai chose to stay. She did all sorts of jobs just to survive on her own and won two scholarships to study at the Jooss-Leeder Dance School at Dartington Hall. 

9. Some of Dai Ailian’s dances were inspired by real life events

Some of the performances were inspired by real life events during the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1937-1945), and she burned with patriotism.

For instance, Dongjiang River was about a story in which a woman risks her life to transport medicine to the frontline under heavy bombing from enemy planes.

10. Elected vice chair of international council for dance of UNESCO

UNESCO Logo- Author; unesco.org- Wikimedia

In 1982, she was elected vice-chairman of the International Council for Dance of UNESCO, the United Nations’ cultural and educational organ.