Mao’s Last Dancer

Bruce Beresford
2009-10-01

Before you can fly, you have to be free.
6.6
117 min

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.

Cast

Name Character Team
Chi Cao Li Cunxin - adult Unowned
Chengwu Guo Li Cunxin - teenage Unowned
Wen Bin Huang Li Cunxin - boy Unowned
Joan Chen Niang Zac E. Chan
Bruce Greenwood Ben Stevenson Unowned
Amanda Schull Elizabeth Mackey Unowned
Kyle MacLachlan Charles Foster The Free Refills
Jack Thompson US Federal Judge Unowned
Camilla Vergotis Mary McKendry Unowned
Madeleine Eastoe Lori Unowned
Steven Heathcote Bobby Cordner Unowned
Aden Young Dilworth Unowned
Wang Shuangbao Unowned
Barbara Bush Herself (archive footage) (uncredited) Unowned
George H. W. Bush Himself (archive footage) (uncredited) Unowned
Mao Zedong Himself (archive footage) (uncredited) Unowned
Bruce Greenwood Unowned
Kip Gamblin David Unowned