Cai Yilei was at the top of his game, the principal dancer with a national ballet in Europe, with awards and accolades under his leotard. Cai discovered that his star didn't shine so brightly in the eyes of a dance company back in Shanghai.
After winning the Prix de Lausanne Gold Medal in 1987, securing a place in the legendary Sadler's Wells Ballet, and going on to become the principal dancer with the Scottish National Ballet, Cai Yilei thought he could write his own ticket in Shanghai.
But, alas, his hometown ballet company felt differently.
His initial joy at landing a one-year contract with the Shanghai Ballet Company quickly turned to disappointment when he was confined to a supporting role in "The Butterfly Lovers," even when there was meatier fare, like the English version of the full-length "Swan Lake," available.
Rather than suffer in silence, the 34-year-old naturalized British citizen decided to turn crisis into opportunity. "It was a turning point, offering me the chance to take a break and think about what I wanted to do," he says.
The answers came quickly. Cai now runs a ballet club in the city. "It's more like community service work, in that it's not profit-driven," says Cai. "I'm doing this for the teaching experience, which counts more than money."
Cai is also racking up teaching experience at the Shanghai Dance School, where he teaches three times a week, and the Shanghai Opera Theater Dance Ensemble, where he teaches ballet fundamentals twice a week.
"We're thrilled to have him," says Cheng Weimin, the Shanghai Opera Theater Dance Ensemble president and former classmate of Cai's at the Shanghai Dance School. "He's an excellent dancer, and before he began teaching, we never had classes in the ballet fundamentals." Cai and Cheng are also planning a dance show, for which Cai will do some choreography. And Cai is applying for a position at the Cultural and Education Section of the British Consulate-General in Shanghai. "I'd love to do something on cultural exchange, and try to find some good ballets for local dance companies to perform."
Cai seems as if he has turned his life around, but he remains bitter. "Shanghai's well-developed veneer lured me back, but I hadn't expected such a disappointing cultural scene, not to mention the incredible narrow-mindedness of some people," he says.
After winning the Prix de Lausanne Gold Medal, Cai caught the eye of Royal Ballet School director Merle Park, who invited the then 17-year-old to study in Britain. Cai's career trajectory, first with the prestigious Sadler's Wells (now the Birmingham Royal Ballet) and later as principal dancer with the Scottish National Ballet, ended the year after his father died as he was dancing the role of Colas in "La Fille Mal Gardee."
Although his schedule prevented him from returning to China for the funeral of his father, a national basketball player during the 1960s, he returned the following year to care for his mother, Zhang Xunpeng, a famous Kunqu Opera singer. "I stayed in Shanghai for my family," says Cai. "The invitation to join the Shanghai Ballet Company was a bonus."
Problems with the Shanghai Ballet arose almost immediately, as Cai's Western sensibilities clashed with his Chinese peers. Cai was relegated to second principal role for the "Swan Lake" project. He was not given the principal role in any weighty classical works, he says, because "they said I was too fat, too short and above all, didn't have a partner. That last line of reasoning was absurd, since nobody has just one assigned partner abroad."
Ha Muti, president of the Shanghai Ballet, offered a different explanation. "Cai is good, but it seems hard for him to adapt to the style of a local company. Moreover, he had been seriously injured before coming to our company, though that only came to light after he joined. The injury did not enable him to dance as well as he had in Britain," he says.
Tired of the arguments, Cai had originally considered returning to Britain - but the desire to prove his mettle has kept him here. "I was able to survive - indeed, thrive - in a foreign country for so many years. There is absolutely no reason that I can't survive in my own country," he says, defiantly.
(eastday.com July 28, 2002)
