Mao’s Last Dancer
Before you can fly, you have to be free.
6.6(123) 2009-10-01 117 minDramaRomance
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.
DirectorBruce Beresford
ScreenplayJan Sardi
ProducerJane Scott
Original Music ComposerChristopher Gordon
Cast & characters
Bruce Greenwood
as Ben Stevenson
Kyle MacLachlan
as Charles Foster
Joan Chen
as Niang
Chi Cao
as Li Cunxin - adult
Amanda Schull
as Elizabeth Mackey
Wang Shuangbao
as Dia
Aden Young
as Dilworth
Jack Thompson
as Judge Woodrow Seals
Penne Hackforth-Jones
as Cynthia Dodds
No photo
Chengwu Guo
as Li Cunxin - teenage
No photo
Wen Bin Huang
as Li Cunxin - boy
No photo
Madeleine Eastoe
as Lori
No photo
Camilla Vergotis
as Mary McKendry
Steven Heathcote
as Bobby Cordner
Kip Gamblin
as David
Christopher Kirby
as Mason
Suzie Steen
as Betty Lou
No photo
Yang Li
as Cunmao - 19 yrs
Ferdinand Hoang
as Consul Zhang
No photo
Xiguo Wu
as Director Wang
Jiao Gang
as Teacher Gao
Yue Xiuqing
as Madame Official
Alice Parkinson
as Assistant Stage Manager
Deni Hines
as Anita Jones
