Trained in classical Western ballet, Dai showed great interest in Chinese folk dances, especially the ethnic dances. Soon after she returned to China, she traveled many times to see the minorities in Southwest China's Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi, and Sichuan provinces to learn the folk dances from the ethnic people.

The direction Chinese dance should take was unclear to Dai at the time. It would have been easy to introduce the Western ballet and modern dance she had learned, and people of the upper classes would have readily accepted it. However, Dai Ailian chose a different path by devoting herself to developing national dance, which was a dream she had held for many years.

When she was learning dance in London, she often saw dance performances at overseas students' social activities by the students from other countries, including Japan, India, and Indonesia, but she never saw anyone from China performing. She felt it was a pity Chinese dance was not being shown, and it made her think what modern Chinese dance should be like. Based on materials she had in English about Chinese history, literature, and painting plus her own understanding of dance, she designed "ideal Chinese national dances," such as the Royal Concubine Yang and Weeping Willow . When she arrived in China, Dai began to make her dream a reality.

Dai Ailian's new trails were based on two parts.

The first was to learn from local Chinese operas, taking from them traditional Chinese dances. For instance, the dance in Melody to Homesick was choreographed to a piece of music of the same name written by Ma Sicong, including postures from Kunqu Opera for the dance. The success of another dance in The Old Carrying the Young was a result of studying Xiaofeiyan, a famous actress of Guiju Opera.

The second part concerned studying from ordinary people and getting source materials from folk dances. For example, after watching people of the Yao ethnic group gather and dance to the accompaniment of drums, she created the dance The Drum of the Yao People. Also, The Spring Outing was created when Dai became familiar with the custom of Tibetan people singing and dancing to their hearts content when plum flowers blossom every year.

Under the poor conditions of that time, Dai Ailian endured untold hardships to study the dances of ethnic groups in West China. She also managed to make friends with the local people and remove their worries while learning the religious dances of some ethnic groups. In this way, she created and performed a group of new national dances based on the dances of the Miao, Yao, Yi, Tibetan, Uygur, and Han ethnicities. 

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