Li Cunxin (dancer)

Li Cunxin (2010)

Li Cunxin ( Chinese  李 存 信 , Pinyin Lǐ Cúnxìn ; born January 26, 1961 in Qingdao , People's Republic of China ) is a former Chinese- Australian ballet dancer and current artistic director of the Queensland Ballet in Brisbane, Australia .

resume

Li Cunxin grew up as the sixth of seven sons in a poor farming family in eastern China. During the Cultural Revolution he was discovered by chance by talent scouts for the Beijing Dance Academy, where he lived and trained for seven years in the strictest discipline. At the age of 18 he was invited to the United States by the Artistic Director of the Houston Ballet , Ben Stevenson , as part of the political rapprochement between the United States and the People's Republic of China .

In the USA, Li, who had developed a passion for classical ballet, realized that he would not be able to develop as a ballet dancer in his home country as he imagined, especially because the repertoire in China was limited to political dance pieces. He also fell in love with an American dancer, Elizabeth Mackey, whom he spontaneously married. When he walked into the Chinese consulate to announce his marriage and his decision to stay in the United States, he was detained against his will for 21 hours before he was able to leave the consulate after intensive diplomatic efforts. His Chinese citizenship was revoked. He was unable to return to China for years, and he did not see his parents for more than seven years, until they were given permission to travel to Houston in 1984 following intervention by the future wife of the President, Barbara Bush .

Li stayed in Houston and danced for the Houston Ballet for 14 years . The marriage to Elizabeth Mackey was divorced in the meantime. During a professional stay in London he met the Australian dancer Mary McKendry, whom he married in 1995; the couple had three children. In the same year the couple went to Australia together, where Li became a member of the Australian Ballet . Three years later, at the age of 37, he ended his career as a dancer, which he had trained as a stockbroker at the same time. He worked in this profession from 1999 until he was appointed Artistic Director of the Queensland Ballet in 2012 . He has a US and an Australian passport.

author

In 2003 Li Cunxin published his autobiography Mao's Last Dancer , the 52nd edition of which has now appeared in the original edition (status 2014). It has been translated into 20 languages, topped the Australian bestseller list and has been nominated for several literary awards. In 2009 it was made into a film by Bruce Beresford under the title Mao's Last Dancer .

honors and awards

Li Cunxin has received numerous awards as a ballet dancer, including twice the Princess Grace Award . He received an honorary doctorate from the Australian Catholic University for contributions to the arts and literature. He was elected Australian Father of the Year in 2009 and Queensland Australian of the Year in 2014 .

publication

• Mao's last dancer: from Chinese farm boy to celebrated ballet star . mvg Verlag 2012, ISBN 978-3-86882-257-1 .

Web links

• Li Cunxin - Mao's Last Dancer. Official website, accessed October 16, 2014 . 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Li Cunxin - Mao's Last Dancer. (No longer available online.) Li Cunxin's Web site, archived from the original on March 22, 2004 ; accessed on October 16, 2014 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ James Rose: Li Cunxin continues journey of transformation. Chron, April 12, 2013, accessed October 16, 2014 . 
3. ^ ^{A b} My Day: Ballet director Li Cunxin. BBC, March 24, 2014, accessed October 20, 2014 . 
4. ↑ ^{a b} Karen Percy: Australian of the Year: Queensland candidate Li Cunxin. ABC, January 24, 2014, accessed October 20, 2014 . 
5. ↑ David Ng: 'Mao's Last Dancer' follows Chinese defector Li Cunxin's odyssey. Los Angeles Time, August 20, 2010; accessed January 8, 2018 . 
6. ^ Artistic Director. Queensland Ballet, accessed October 20, 2014 . 

Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Chinese. Li is the family name here, Cunxin is the first name.