Chinese female dance performer and educator. Originally from Xinhui County, Guangdong Province, she was born in Trinidad and Tobago, West Indies, and began to learn dance at the age of 5. She entered the local dance school at the age of 10 to study ballet, and at the age of 14, she went to London to study at the ballet studios of the renowned choreographer, A. Dorling, and at M. Lambert's Ballet School, and then with the ballet master, M. Klasker. Afterwards, due to the family's failure, she pursued her studies by working half-time, often performing dances at the London Artists' Salon or working as an extra at film studios and theaters. Her works such as "The Flower Seller of Persian Square", "Yang Guifei" and "Umbrella Dance" were created under such circumstances.
Dai Irene saw the performance of German modern dancer M. Wigman in London and fell in love with it. At that time, the Wigman Company had a dance studio in London, so she went to study. In her studies, she felt that modern dance was free and unrestrained, but lacked systematic technique; while classical ballet had systematic technique, but lacked expressiveness. Therefore, she boldly put forward the idea that modern dance and ballet should learn from each other and complement each other in terms of technique. However, due to the deep-seated differences between the ballet and modern dance schools at that time, the teacher, fearing that her views would affect other students, expelled her. However, this did not shake her determination to learn modern dance, and she found that the performances of the Juice Ballet adopted the method of closely combining human movement with inner feelings, which had both good technique and rich expressive power. She absorbed this approach in her own practice, and in 1939 she was awarded a scholarship with honors to the prestigious Juus Ryder School of Dance. At the school, she studied the theories of the famous dance theorist R.von Laban on the method of expression of emotion and the technical aspects of stage performance, as well as dance scores, etc., which had a profound influence on her later choreography.
After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War in 1937, Dai Ailian took part in many charity performances in London organized by the China Campaign Committee for the Defense of China Alliance led by Soong Ching Ling to raise funds for the anti-Japanese resistance, and choreographed and performed dances such as "Wake Up" and "Forward," which glorified the spirit of the Chinese people's resistance to the war. After the outbreak of the Second World War, she returned to her homeland and was met by Soong Ching Ling in Hong Kong in the spring of 1940. After the Pearl Harbor incident, she traveled to Guilin via Macau. Immediately after that, she took part in the performance activities to support the fund-raising for the anti-Japanese war, and created dances on the theme of anti-Japanese salvation, such as "The Story of the Guerrillas", "Sell", "Air Raid", "Dongjiang" and "Homesick Song", which played a positive role in publicizing the anti-Japanese war; at the same time, it also promoted the development of the dance career in China. She is also engaged in collecting, organizing, performing and researching folk dances of various ethnic groups. In the fall of 1942, Dai Ailian went to Chongqing, where she first taught at the National Opera School and the National Institute of Social Education, and then founded the dance group of Yucai School in response to educator Tao Xingzhi's invitation. During this period, Zhou Enlai and Deng Yingchao often cared for and helped her, encouraging her to learn from the folk and work hard to develop the cause of Chinese folk dance. This had a profound influence on her later artistic practice. in 1945, she composed the song and dance "Sister Zhu Delivers Eggs" after watching a new Yangge opera performed by Yan'an literati at the Xinhua Daily Newspaper in Chongqing. In the summer of the same year, she and the famous painter Ye Qianyu went to the north of Sichuan, Xikang and other places to collect a large number of minority dance materials, with Laban dance sheet recorded eight Tibetan dance (now exist in the United States, respectively, New York Dance Sheet Music Center Library and London Dance Center Library). She also created the Tibetan dance "Spring Journey" and "Ganzi Ancient Dance", Yi dance "toms love song", Miao dance "Miao Family Moon", Uygur dance "Youth Dance" and "Carriage Driver's Song", etc.; and in 1946 and Yucai school teachers and students together in Chongqing held a grand Frontier Music and Dance Conference. This performance had a great impact, not only made the folk dances of various ethnic groups in China on the modern stage, but also set off a popularization movement of folk dances. In the fall of the same year, she and Ye Qianyu went to the United States to give lectures and introduce Chinese folk dance to the American people. after returning to China in 1947, she presided over the work of the private Shanghai School of Music and Dance, and taught at the National Teachers' College and the Beiping National Academy of Fine Arts in 1948. Dai Ailian was one of the pioneers of China's new dance art and trained a number of professionals for the new dance endeavor.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Dai Ailian successively served as the captain of the dance team of the three departments of the North China University, the director of the dance troupe of the Central Academy of Drama, the director of the Central Song and Dance Troupe, and the principal of the Beijing Dance School. During this period she collaborated with other comrades to create large-scale programs such as the big song and dance "Long Live the People's Victory", the big rice-planting song "The Construction of the Motherland" (1949), and the dance drama "Doves of Peace" (1950). Her "Lotus Dance", based on the folk dance form "Lotus Lantern" in northern Shaanxi Province, was well received by the public and won an award at the World Youth and Student Peace and Friendship Festival in 1953. After that, she also created the duo dance "Flying Sky", which was the first dance treasure in the Chinese dance world to show the art of Dunhuang in Tang Dynasty, and won an award at the World Young Students' Peace and Friendship Festival in 1955.
Dai Ailian has been a dance educator since the 1940s, and many of her students are now accomplished dancers. In addition to her teaching, she has also been dedicated to the spread of Laban Dance Score in China, and since 1980, she has organized Laban Dance Score Classes, which have trained Laban Dance Score talents for China.
In order to promote Chinese and foreign dance art exchanges, Dai Ailian has visited Britain, Federal Republic of Germany, the United States, Denmark, Sweden, etc. In May 1981, the Royal Academy of Dance of the United Kingdom will be the famous British sculptor W. Sokope 1939 sculpture of Dai Ailian's head in the hall of the academy in recognition of her contribution to the promotion of Sino-British friendship and artistic cooperation. In the same year, the Dance Museum in Stockholm, Sweden, collected a replica of the statue in recognition of her efforts to develop international dance.
Dai Ailian is currently a member of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, vice-chairman of the China Dancers' Association, artistic advisor of the Central Ballet, and vice-chairman of the International Dance Council of UNESCO.