Mao’s Last Dancer
"Before you can fly, you have to be free."
At the age of 11, Li was plucked from a poor Chinese village by Madame Mao's cultural delegates and taken to Beijing to study ballet. In 1979, during a cultural exchange to Texas, he falls in love with an American woman. Two years later, he managed to defect and went on to perform as a principal dancer for the Houston Ballet and as a principal artist with the Australian Ballet.
Save this for later
Sign up free to add it to your watchlist and track your progress.
Cast
Bruce Greenwood
Ben Stevenson
Kyle MacLachlan
Charles Foster
Joan Chen
Niang
Chi Cao
Li Cunxin - adult
Amanda Schull
Elizabeth Mackey
Wang Shuangbao
Dia
Aden Young
Dilworth
Jack Thompson
Judge Woodrow Seals
Penne Hackforth-Jones
Cynthia Dodds
Chengwu Guo
Li Cunxin - teenage
Wen Bin Huang
Li Cunxin - boy
Madeleine Eastoe
Lori
Camilla Vergotis
Mary McKendry
Steven Heathcote
Bobby Cordner
Kip Gamblin
David
Christopher Kirby
Mason
Suzie Steen
Betty Lou
Yang Li
Cunmao - 19 yrs
Ferdinand Hoang
Consul Zhang
Xiguo Wu
Director Wang
More Like This
Overview
At the age of 11, Li was plucked from a poor Chinese village by Madame Mao's cultural delegates and taken to Beijing to study ballet. In 1979, during a cultural exchange to Texas, he falls in love with an American woman. Two years later, he managed to defect and went on to perform as a principal dancer for the Houston Ballet and as a principal artist with the Australian Ballet.