Submitted by Mei-Chen Lu, May 10, 2021
Madame Dai Ailian played a vital role in modern Chinese dance development. She was born in Trinidad and received her education in England. During World War II, she returned to her motherland and along she brought with her was Laban's theory to China. The system and theory Laban and his pupils introduced had deeply influenced Mme. Dai’s choreography and teaching.
In the 1980s, Mme. Dai and her students spent weeks in rural areas in China to learn ethnic folk dances from locals and preserved them in Labanotation. Later "Eight Tibetan Folk Dances", "Eight Yi Folk Dances", and "Eight Chinese Nationalities Folk Dances" were published. These folk dances are simple but reflect the life of people and aesthetic sense from their own culture.
May 10 is Mme. Dai's birthday. Here is our tribute to her by sharing her notation scores with the permission from the National Ballet of China.
To view these scores, click the links below:
"Eight Yi Folk Dances", and
"Eight Chinese Nationalities Folk Dances"
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