
"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.
Elizabeth Mackey

Li Cunxin - adult

Li Cunxin - teenage
Li Cunxin - boy
Niang

Ben Stevenson

Charles Foster

US Federal Judge

Mary McKendry
Lori
Bobby Cordner
Dilworth

Unknown Role

Herself (archive footage) (uncredited)

Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)

Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)

Unknown Role

David

Houston Ballet Conductor