Aili SUN (Art Production Director)

The Aili in my eyes

In the Sydney Chinese performing arts community Aili Sun is a well known dancer and choreographer. She is an extraordinary dancer in the Sydney Chinese community. Aili started her journey in the Sydney Chinese Dance Group in her early 20s and with her exceptional dance knowledge and skills she quickly became the artistic director and choreographer of the dance group. She is not only beautiful on the outside but also elegant, graceful and passionate through her dance. Aili’s recent appearance was in the Flower Goddesses of Tang Dynasty as the main character (flower queen Peony). This large scale dance drama has brought the audiences a new sight of Chinese dance, with Aili’s skills and techniques in the dance she helped the character to elevate the drama story to a new height. Especially the last act of the dance where she led the group to an extraordinary ending, not to mention Aili’s skills using the colourful Tang Dynasty costume have added a unique visual element to the audience. Again Aili’s dances have left audiences an unforgettable experience.

When Aili was a little girl her kindergarten teacher inspired her to perform and dance in front of her friends and that was when she started love dance and perform. Aili started learning dance at age of five, her talent and hard work have had big contribution to her dance and chorography skills. Aili has been introduced to jazz, hip-hop and contemporary dance when she was study in high school in Australia, this allowed her to be able to grasp and create modern dance in a very unique way. With her skill set in Chinese dance Aili has shown her amazing choreograph skill through different forms of Chinese dance such as Dai, Han, Meng, Miao, Zhang, Xinjiang just to name a few. Aili loves to help young dancers from the group to refine their skills and also very kind to share the key element to a technique in a particular move. She is a patient dance instructor and teacher as well as a talented dancer who always able to find time for the others to share her knowledge.

In real life Aili is a beautiful, talented and stylish girl who loves arts and books, she is a confident individual who loves to spend time with her friends and share her knowledge and skills with the others. She is a quiet tall Chinese girl; her slim build has been her greatest gift. You would not believe that Aili has never been on a diet and surprisingly talented in cooking and she loves ‘Master Chef’. Besides dance her other major interest will be food, her vast interest on food can only bring envy from other dancers. Her secret is to eat healthy and exercise through dance, this allowed her not only enjoy delicious food but also build a slim body shape at the same time. Aili also holds a Master of Teaching Degree teaching is her true profession and her passion. This is why she is so talented and gifted, she always brings surprises to people and to me she is a legend.

Aili’s achievements are not only shown on the stages she also passionate in teaching and educate next generation. She is currently a teacher from the Department of Education and Community (DEC) in NSW. Most of her students are local high school students who have limited knowledge about Mandarin and Chinese culture. The school Aili is working at is one of the three Confucius Classrooms in NSW which supported by the Confucius institute from Chinese Government. Every year there are more than 300 students who have the opportunity to be in Aili’s classes to experience Chinese culture and the beauty of the language. Aili commented that to see the students thrive and succeed are the best moment of her teaching career. In August 2013 Aili participated and given a presentation on the first Asia Education Foundation (AEF) held in Melbourne. She presented in front of colleagues from interstates, principals from different schools as well as educators from across the country on language teaching pedagogies, culture immersion and Outreach projects she had ran in her school. As an educator Aili is dedicate and passionate to continue her role as a teacher to inspire younger learners about Chinese language, culture and arts.

Speaking of legends, a person who does not seek publicity and excitement does not lack passion in his heart. From Sun Aili’s dance, people can appreciate her rich inner world and outstanding artistic attainments. So we can see the stage images she created, such as “Tang Flower Fairy”, “Flying Apsaras”, “Moonlight in Front of the Bed”, etc., which amazed the audience. With her excellent acting skills, beautiful appearance and elegant dance posture, she interprets the mystery, deep understanding of justice and elegant poet temperament of these characters vividly, allowing the audience to see them at a glance. Aili can forget herself and indulge in the play, presenting an indescribable beauty with graceful lines, warm eyes and simple temperament. I really don’t know how she can achieve the state of “enlightenment” where she forgets both the self and the world. Through every moment of movement and expression, she grasps the complex inner drama appropriately in her unique way. She presents to the audience oriental women who are extremely beautiful, slightly sad, pure and elegant, giving rise to endless reverie.

Sun Aili is a person with her own artistic ideas. She is good at learning and innovative. She has twice represented the Sydney Chinese Dance Company to Shenzhen to receive dance training organized by the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council. This has enabled her to have a deeper understanding of classical dance and folk dance, and has played an important role in the subsequent performances and training of the dance company. Aili’s talent structure is multifaceted, and her writing is also beautiful. She uses such language advantages to express her attitude towards life and her understanding and views on dance. This is precious for a dancer. She has hosted many evening parties and dance performances, and has also talked freely in front of reporters or TV cameras many times. It is hard to guess how she trained her words and meanings, the logic of her language is orderly, the color of her language is both emotional and emotional, the rhythm of her language is neither hot nor cold, and her agile response, on-the-spot handling, and flexible coping skills. It is probably like her dance performance, a state of selflessness after entering the state of “enlightenment”.

Ellie is indeed a legend. When she is not joking, her dancing talent is amazing. She can master jazz, hip-hop and belly dance in a few weeks, and her dancing makes insiders sit up and take notice. In my opinion, it is just her joke, but I always feel that she is not good at telling jokes. All her talents are obviously elegant and intellectual. She only tells jokes occasionally as a change of pace. I still prefer to see her works such as “Moonlight”, “Fan Dance” and “Tang Flower Fairy”. Our times are too flashy and we need some thinking to make us sober!

Don’t be obsessed with Ellie, Ellie is just a legend, haha, just a joke, to paraphrase the popular saying on the Internet, “Don’t be obsessed with me, I’m just a legend”. We don’t have to be obsessed with anyone, but, undoubtedly, Sun Ellie is one of the few in our Sydney Chinese dance community. But just like the classic line in Spider-Man, “With great power comes great responsibility”, there are always more expectations and higher requirements for Ellie, let us look forward to her new legend.