Mao’s Last Dancer
01/10/2009
2h

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.
Cast


Amanda Schull
Elizabeth Mackey


Chi Cao
Li Cunxin - adult
Chengwu Guo
Li Cunxin - teenage
Wen Bin Huang
Li Cunxin - boy


Joan Chen
Niang


Bruce Greenwood
Ben Stevenson


Kyle MacLachlan
Charles Foster


Jack Thompson
US Federal Judge
Camilla Vergotis
Mary McKendry
Madeleine Eastoe
Lori
Steven Heathcote
Bobby Cordner


Aden Young
Dilworth


Wang Shuangbao


Barbara Bush
Herself (archive footage) (uncredited)


George H. W. Bush
Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)


Mao Zedong
Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)


Bruce Greenwood


Kip Gamblin
David
George Ellis
Houston Ballet Conductor
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