Mao's Last Dancer

Mao's Last Dancer

117 mins | Drama, Romance | Oct. 1, 2009

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 fell 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.

Mao's Last Dancer

117 mins | Drama, Romance | Oct. 1, 2009

Mao's Last Dancer
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 fell 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.
IMDb rating 7.3
Producers Great Scott Productions Pty. Ltd.
Original title Mao's Last Dancer
Directors Bruce Beresford
Writers Cunxin Li, Jan Sardi

Cast

Chi Cao

as Li Cunxin - adult

Chengwu Guo

as Li Cunxin - teenage

Wen Bin Huang

as Li Cunxin - boy

Joan Chen

as Niang

Bruce Greenwood

as Ben Stevenson /

Amanda Schull

as Elizabeth Mackey

Kyle MacLachlan

as Charles Foster

Jack Thompson

as US Federal Judge

Camilla Vergotis

as Mary McKendry

Steven Heathcote

as Bobby Cordner

Aden Young

as Dilworth

Barbara Bush

as Herself (archive footage) (uncredited)

George H.W. Bush

as Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)

Mao Zedong

as Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)

Kip Gamblin

as David