Loading a partial view in jquery.dialog

Try something like this:

<script type="text/javascript">
    $(function () {
        $('#dialog').dialog({
            autoOpen: false,
            width: 400,
            resizable: false,
            title: 'hi there',
            modal: true,
            open: function(event, ui) {
                //Load the CreateAlbumPartial action which will return 
                // the partial view _CreateAlbumPartial
                $(this).load("@Url.Action("CreateAlbumPartial")");
            },
            buttons: {
                "Close": function () {
                    $(this).dialog("close");
                }
            }
        });

        $('#my-button').click(function () {
            $('#dialog').dialog('open');
        });
    });
</script>
<div id="dialog" title="Create Album" style="overflow: hidden;">

We used the open function which is triggered when the dialog is opened and inside we send an AJAX request to a controller action which would return the partial:

public ActionResult CreateAlbumPartial()
{
    return View("_CreateAlbumPartial");
}