From an Orphan to a Ballerina

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The 10-year-old Chen Ailian became an orphan in 1949 when her parents died. She was sent to an orphanage and spent two years there. Her life took an unexpected twist when she turned thirteen. In 1952, some teachers from the Beijing-based Central Theater Academy came to Shanghai to recruit young talents. The recruit teacher came to the orphanage and spotted Chen Ailian. The teacher decided that the little girl was made for dance, for she looked cute, slender and willowy. Chen did not know a thing about dancing, but she came to Beijing.

After two years of essential training, she entered Beijing Dancing School in 1954. It was China’s first school dedicated to the training of dancers. Chen Ailian soon became a star pupil there. She graduated in 1959 with top honors in all subjects. In the same year, she starred as the lead in “Mermaid”, a Chinese dance drama, something between ballet and Chinese dance. In 1962, she appeared at the 8th World Youth Festival in Finland and won four gold medals. She was a dancer of international renown nurtured by New China since 1949.

While she was in top form and at the top of the world as an accomplished dancer, her career was brought to an abrupt end as the Cultural Revolution plunged everything into chaos. Her husband committed suicide and she was exiled to countryside for three years. Though she worked as a farmer at daytime, she did a dancer’s daily practice every night at a thrashing ground in the village. Villagers gawked at her curiously and her colleagues tried to talk her out of dreaming of returning to limelight. But she persisted.

She came back when the Cultural Revolution was put to an end. But she was never to see her 40 again.When the troupe organized a team for future performances, Chen Ailian found that she was not included in the troupe’s plan for future. Although bitterly disappointed, she refused to bow out. She decided to go all out for a solo show.

In 1980, she staged China’s first-ever individual dancing show. It was a huge success. But the success did not help her much, for the whole showbiz was experiencing unprecedented changes in these years. Many troupes were being reorganized into a different system and depended upon market for survival. Chen Ailian got to decide what she wanted to do: to stay in the troupe or start her own business. She decided to go solo as she always did and still does.

With the approval of the Ministry of Culture, she set up Chen Ailian Art Troupe and started a private dancing school. Both the troupe and the school are successful. Seven batches of students have graduated from the school since 1995 and many have entered art academies and dancing academies and many have joined art troupes.

In her troupe, her age is never a problem.She has continued to dance and she is still a leading dancer. In 1981, she starred as the female lead in “The Dream of Red Mansions”, a dance drama adapted from the namesake Chinese classical novel. Critics agreed that she was China’s best dancing Lin Daiyu, the tragic heroine of the classic novel. And in 2006, the 67-year-old Chen completed her 500th appearance as the star in “The Dream of Red Mansions”. Audiences were amazed by the incredible dancer still doing pirouettes and other complicated moves. Most audiences and critics concluded she was a dancing miracle, still hopping gracefully and artistically despite her advancing age, although some critics made spiteful remarks.

The 55th anniversary of her dancing career came in 2008. In order to stage a commemorative solo celebration, she prepared for more than a year. She still dances those numbers that made her fame from the 1950s, the 1960s, the 1970s and the 1980s. Critics can’t help but feel amazed that Chen Ailian, at her age, can still do some perfect moves that even dancers decades younger can’t do well. It is believed that only a dancer with decades of experience and dedication can put her soul into the moves she presents. Some people wonder how long Chen Ailian will keep dancing. Chen is most optimistic. “Time does not age a person; it is the loss of aspiration and spirit that makes one old.”