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.

Sugar plums and snowflakes, dreams and spells –The Nutcracker is one of the world’s best-loved ballets, and this production by Peter Wright is one of the most enchanting stagings ever created. The Australian Ballet shines in this charming classic. Sumptuously staged and set to Tchaikovsky’s celebrated score, this ballet is a truly magical experience for the whole family.

2020 DIGITAL SEASON | 25 JUNE 2020 Expires 5pm (AEST) Thursday 9 July 2020 This production is brought to you free by our Production Partner Silversea. Graeme Murphy’s modern-day classic is a Swan Lake for the 21st century, charged with sensuality and heartbreak. The Australian Ballet’s most performed and most successful work has swept the world before it, reaping standing ovations and storms of tears in London, Paris, Tokyo and New York. The romance of Princess Odette and Prince Siegfried is updated (and complicated) to a contemporary love triangle with the addition of the Baroness von Rothbart, a slinky mistress who has no intention of releasing her freshly married lover. Murphy’s breathtaking pas de deux and massed swans are framed by legendary designer Kristian Fredrikson’s darkly sparkling lake, contrasted with the glittering magnificence of regal weddings and ballrooms. This is Swan Lake as you’ve never seen it before.

Set outside of place and time, Graeme Murphy’s Romeo & Juliet is a transcendent ode to the timeless love story. Recorded 21 September 2011.