
"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.
Ben Stevenson

Charles Foster

Niang

Li Cunxin - adult

Elizabeth Mackey

Dia

Dilworth

Judge Woodrow Seals

Cynthia Dodds

Li Cunxin - teenage
Li Cunxin - boy
Lori
Mary McKendry
Bobby Cordner

David

Mason

Betty Lou

Cunmao - 19 yrs
Consul Zhang

Director Wang
Teacher Gao

Madame Official

Assistant Stage Manager

Anita Jones

Vice Consul Lan
Security Guard
Security Guard
Security Guard
Security Guard
China Desk Officer
Newsreader

TV Reporter
TV Reporter

TV Presenter
WTC Backstage Manager

Houston Ballet Conductor
Senator's Wife
