Mao’s Last Dancer
Before you can fly, you have to be free.
117 mins
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.
Chengwu Guo
Li Cunxin - teenage
Wen Bin Huang
Li Cunxin - boy
Camilla Vergotis
Mary McKendry
Madeleine Eastoe
Lori
Steven Heathcote
Bobby Cordner
Troy Lum
Executive Producer
Cunxin Li
Author
Sue MacKay
Line Producer
Elaine Kusmishko
Art Direction
Peter James
Director of Photography
Kerrie Brown
Set Decoration
Mark Warner
Editor
Ziggy Golden
Makeup & Hair
Geng Ling
Co-Producer
Maree McDonald
Hairstylist
Xin Mu
Makeup Artist
Jan Sardi
Screenplay
Herbert Pinter
Production Design
Anna Borghesi
Costume Design