“Mao’s Last Dancer” Premieres Production
Li Cunxin, branded “Mao’s Last Dancer†due to the book he authored and the subsequent movie, is now the Creative Director of the Queensland Ballet, in Australia. His first production, Prokofiev’s “Cinderellaâ€, has just premiered. Li is perhaps China’s most famous defector. And for those of you who have a stereotypical view of dance, ballet or other forms, consider this paragraph from a new account of Li’s life in Queensland about another famous defector: “Krushchev wanted Nureyev killed after his defection from the Kirov in Paris in 1961. The KGB organised pro-Soviet cadres in Paris to throw fruit and jeer his performances. There were plans to break his legs. He was sentenced in absentia to seven years in prison. Friends and colleagues back in Russia were pressured, abused, arrested. Careers were terminated, lives ruined. Defection is not for sissies.”
