Tai Ai-lien (1916-), was a leading dancer-choreographer who developed traditional dance forms into a truly national art performed by professionals. In 1955 she became the principal of the newly established Pei-ching wu-tao hsueh-hsiao [Peking school of dance] .

The parents of Tai Ai-lien had migrated from Kwangtung to Trinidad before her birth. As a child, Tai Ai-lien showed great dancing talent, and in 1931 she went to England to study at the Jooss School of Ballet at Dartington Hall in Devon. She also worked under Anton Dolin and Margaret Craske and gained some film and stage experience. In 1940 she left England for China to take up the study of traditional Chinese dances.

Tai Ai-lien made a number of professional appearances in Hong Kong before going on to China proper. The last of these was given at the King's Theater on 22 January 1941. Her program for this benefit performance, "Divertissements," included a new sketch, "East River," which was based on Cantonese folk dancing. From Hong Kong, she went to Kweilin, where she performed twice. She also made appearances at Kweiyang and Chungking. During this period, she began to study local Chinese dance forms, aided by a group of pupil-assistants. Because she had an indifferent command of Chinese, she was forced to conduct her classes in English until she learned sufficient Chinese to communicate easily.

At Chungking, Tai Ai-lien taught at the Kuo-li ko-chü hsueh-hsiao [national academy of opera], the She-hui chiao-yü hsueh-yuan [academy for social education], and Yü-ts'ai hsueh-hsiao [talent-nurturing academy]. The last of these was directed by T'ao Hsing-chih (q.v.). Tai also formed her own troupe, the Chinese Ballet Group, which traveled as widely as wartime conditions permitted to study local dances and adapt them for stage performance at Chungking under the generic title Chung-kuo wu-yang [Chinese dance]. One of Tai Ai-lien's most spectacular successes was her adaptation of certain Uighur dances from Chinese Turkestan. The group also traveled to and brought back dances from such areas as Sinkiang and Tibet. By the end of the War in the Pacific, Tai Ai-lien had gained a national reputation as a dancer-choreographer. In 1946 the name of her troupe was changed to the Dance Group of the Chinese Folk Music and Dance Research Society.

In the summer of 1946, Tai Ai-lien went to the United States with her husband, the painter and cartoonist Yeh Ch'ien-yü (q.v.), whom she had married in Chungking. Yeh had been invited to the United States on a cultural exchange trip sponsored by the United States Department of State. During their year abroad, Tai Ai-lien gave dance recitals in New York. On returning to China in August 1947, she joined some of her former pupils in opening the China School of Dance in Shanghai. In 1949 she moved to northern China to pursue her ambition of promoting the study and performance of dance, an undertaking for which she was given active encouragement by the Chinese Communist authorities.

In 1949 China ushered in the new regime with the yang-ko, a simple rice-planting dance that became the Carmagnole of the Chinese Communist revolution. In every town and city students and children paraded the streets in long and sinuous lines to the insistent beat of the waist drum. For a time, the yang-ko and derivative routines superseded all other forms of dancing in China. As the initial revolutionary fervor subsided, however, the yang-ko gave way before the first phase of what was to become a notable revival of traditional dancing in China. Tai Ai-lien was a dominant figure in the dance revival. In the summer of 1949, she was a delegate to the initial meeting of the All-China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, the principal organization used to exert Chinese Communist party control in the fields of literature and fine arts. Thereafter, she held a series of administrative posts in the People's Republic of China, including membership in the National People's congresses. Early in 1953 Tai Ai-lien, accompanied by two musicians, made an extensive tour to study and record local dance forms throughout China. In 1955 she was appointed principal of the newly established Pei-ching wu-tao hsueh-hsiao [Peking school of dance], the first national academy of its kind in China. Curriculum and training procedures at the school were set up with the help of Russian experts. Selected pupils between the ages of eleven and fourteen were enrolled in a seven-year course in which traditional Chinese choreography was the basic study, although the rudiments of Western ballet dancing also were taught. Much attention was given to the dances of non-Chinese minority groups in the People's Republic of China and to dances of other Asian countries. A strong effort was made to build up a national repertoire drawn from these sources. In 1959 the Pei-ching wu-tao hsueh-hsiao established its own experimental ballet group, and it later sponsored a number of talented troupes. Tai Ai-lien took a leading part in the development of this institution, both as a teacher and as the choreographer of many of the dances performed by the students and the national touring troupes. In the post- 1954 period, she also served as vice chairman of the board of directors of the China Association for Research in the Art of the Dance.

Tai Ai-lien was a pioneer in her field. Although there had been some experiments in dance in China before her arrival in 1942, it was only through the thoroughness of her research, her artistic talent, and her choreographic inventiveness that traditional dance forms were developed into a truly national art performed by professionals. Tai Chi-t'ao T. Ch'uan-hsien H. T'ien-ch'ou [200] ^ ft