"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
Herself (archive footage) (uncredited)
Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)
Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)
David
Director
Producer
Art Direction
Set Decoration
Costume Design
Line Producer
Co-Producer
Music
Editor
Production Design
Screenplay
Author
Director of Photography
Makeup & Hair
Hairstylist
Makeup Artist
Executive Producer