Mao’s Last Dancer

Before you can fly, you have to be free.

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.

Top Cast

Amanda Schull

Elizabeth Mackey

Chi Cao

Li Cunxin - adult

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Chengwu Guo

Li Cunxin - teenage

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Wen Bin Huang

Li Cunxin - boy

Joan Chen

Niang

Bruce Greenwood

Ben Stevenson

Kyle MacLachlan

Charles Foster

Jack Thompson

US Federal Judge

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Camilla Vergotis

Mary McKendry

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Madeleine Eastoe

Lori