Dai Ailian was born in 1916 to a Chinese family who had been in Trinidad for two generations already. Ailian started learning ballet when she was 7 years-old, and at 14 was accepted in to the Jooss School of Ballet in England.

 

In 1937, Ailian helped  raise funds for the Hong Kong-based China Defense League by performing for the China Campaign Committee in London, an organisation that was spearheaded by the wife of Sun Yat-sen.

Soong Ching Ling, Sun Yat-sen's wife, would later help Ailian move to Hong Kong, and from there on she became the centre of modern dance in China. Later she would hold the post of principal at  Beijing Dancing School, director of the Central Song and Dance Ensemble, director and adviser of the Central Ballet Troupe, and in her later years was the  vice-chairman of the International Council for Dance of UNESCO until her death in 2006.

 

Ailian's most famous works are Dove of Peace, Dance of Lotus Flowers, and Flying Apsaras. The latter two would later be recognised as 20th century classics of Chinese dance.