Mao's Last Dancer (2009)

Before you can fly, you have to be free.

117 min★ 7.3 · 8,598 votes

• Biography
• Drama
• Music

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.

Release date

October 1, 2009

Country of origin

Australia

Budget

$25,000,000

Box office

$23,914,731