Mao’s Last Dancer

Storyline

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

Amanda Schull

Elizabeth Mackey

Chi Cao

Chi Cao

Li Cunxin - adult

?

Chengwu Guo

Li Cunxin - teenage

?

Wen Bin Huang

Li Cunxin - boy

Joan Chen

Joan Chen

Niang

Bruce Greenwood

Bruce Greenwood

Ben Stevenson

Kyle MacLachlan

Kyle MacLachlan

Charles Foster

Jack Thompson

Jack Thompson

US Federal Judge

?

Camilla Vergotis

Mary McKendry

?

Madeleine Eastoe

Lori

?

Steven Heathcote

Bobby Cordner

Aden Young

Aden Young

Dilworth

Wang Shuangbao

Wang Shuangbao

Barbara Bush

Barbara Bush

Herself (archive footage) (uncredited)

George H. W. Bush

George H. W. Bush

Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)

Mao Zedong

Mao Zedong

Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)

Bruce Greenwood

Bruce Greenwood

Kip Gamblin

Kip Gamblin

David

?

George Ellis

Houston Ballet Conductor

Director

Bruce Beresford

Writers

Jan Sardi

Status

Released

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