Sophie, the ballerina and the red balloon - Chasing the impossible dream and sacrificing ambition for love

Mary Li was a star ballerina when she fell in love with Li Cunxin, her dance partner at the Houston Ballet. When their daughter Sophie was born profoundly deaf, Mary walked away from dance for many years

Mary Li says she was the least likely girl to grow up to be a ballerina.

She grew up in a family of eight kids in the rough and tumble of the Queensland country town of Rockhampton.

But in a little timber hall, with cattle trains rolling by outside, Mary discovered a talent for dance.

That talent, and a huge amount of hard work and family support took her to the Royal Ballet School in London at sixteen.

She then became the principal dancer with the London Festival Ballet, then the Houston ballet.

There in Houston Mary fell in love with her dance partner Li Cunxin.

Li had also come a long way from his home in rural China, defecting to the U.S. as an adult and then becoming an internationally celebrated dancer.

In Houston Li and Mary married and had their first child, a beautiful daughter named Sophie.

But when Sophie was 16 months old their lives were turned upside down.

Mary became a household name when her husband Li Cunxin published his bestselling memoir, Mao's Last Dancer - but that book told only half the story. This conversation dives deeper.

Further information

Mary's Last Dance is published by Penguin

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