Mao’s Last Dancer
“Before you can fly, you have to be free.”
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.
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Cast
37 people
Bruce Greenwood
Ben Stevenson
Known for
The Resident
Star Trek Into Darkness
Kyle MacLachlan
Charles Foster
Known for
Fallout
Twin Peaks
Joan Chen
Niang
Known for
Twin Peaks
Marco Polo
Chi Cao
Li Cunxin - adult
Also in
Nutcracker Sweeties
Amanda Schull
Elizabeth Mackey
Known for
Suits
12 Monkeys
Wang Shuangbao
Dia
Known for
Blind Shaft
No Man's Land
Aden Young
Dilworth
Known for
Rectify
Killer Elite
Jack Thompson
Judge Woodrow Seals
Known for
Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones
The Great Gatsby
Penne Hackforth-Jones
Cynthia Dodds
Known for
The Tree
Paradise Road
Chengwu Guo
Li Cunxin - teenage
Also in
Coppélia
Wen Bin Huang
Li Cunxin - boy
No other roles listed
Madeleine Eastoe
Lori
Also in
Graeme Murphy's Swan Lake
The Australian Ballet's The Nutcracker
Bruce Beresford Director · Jan Sardi Screenplay Cunxin Li Author
Worldwide gross $24M · Budget $25M · United States release August 20, 2010
Box office
Budget
$25,000,000
Worldwide gross
$23,914,731
Gross vs. budget
1.0×
Production
Great Scott Productions Pty. Ltd.
Production
Australia · China
Produced in
Languages
Original language
English
Spoken on screen
Chinese · English
Release dates
Canada · September 13, 2009
Premiere · Toronto International Film Festival
United States · August 20, 2010
Theatrical
Australia
October 1, 2009 · Theatrical
Germany
November 3, 2010 · Theatrical
Greece
January 19, 2012 · Theatrical
Netherlands
June 17, 2010 · Theatrical
New Zealand
March 4, 2010 · Theatrical
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Some details come from TheTVDB.