The Best Movie of the Summer for Legal Nurse Consultants

One of my passions is dance. I love dance in all of its variations, modern dance, ballet, jazz, tap and even interpretational movement. I admire the strength, athleticism and the ability of the dancers to contort their bodies into all kinds of impossible positions. If you’ve ever thought those male ballet dancers don’t measure up to other testosterone-laden male athletes, just ask your husband to lift you over your head and dance across your living room. My husband, Tom, is still recovering from that move.

If, like Shirley MacLaine, I’m coming back for another spin, it will be as a dancer. After college (never as a child) I took countless hours of dance classes and, yes, there is a reason I found my niche in legal nurse consulting. I’ve gone to great lengths to see some of the greatest dancers in history perform, Alicia Alonso, Nureyev, Baryshnikov, Godunov and even one you might not have heard of, Li Cuxin.

Fortunately you can meet him in my favorite movie of the summer “Mao’s Last Dancer” (sorry Tom, The Expendables is out). This is not a mainstream movie so you won’t find it at your local gazzilion-plex. It’s probably going to be found at your local “art-house” theatre – you know the one full of people in Birkenstocks, turtlenecks and dirty denim skirts (and that’s just the men).

Even though this is an art film, the director is hardly an unknown. Bruce Berensford directed the films Tender Mercies with Robert Duval and Driving Miss Daisy with Morgan Freeman and the late Jessica Tandy. Like those films, there are no special effects, no big explosions, car chases, aliens or gunfights. Instead this is a human story.

SPOILER ALERT: It’s the true story of Li Cuxin who came from China to Houston, and the Houston Ballet as an exchange student for three months and chose to defect and stay for a lifetime. He did so at the cost of his freedom (he was kidnapped inside the Chinese embassy in Houston) and the threat of never being able to return to China or to see and communicate with his family ever again.

Li was the sixth son in a large family in rural China. In the mid-1970s Communist Chinese officials randomly plucked him from his family and meager school house and sent him on an unimaginable journey to Beijing and ballet school. He was then trained, in an almost militaristic manner, to dance. Bullied and verbally abused by one particular teacher due to his lack of strength, he showed his determination to succeed by becoming one of the strongest dancers in his school. He soon showed an aptitude for something he’d never heard or, much less desired to become involved with – ballet.

During a visit to his Chinese ballet school by Ben Stevenson, artistic director of the Houston Ballet, Li stood out from the other dancers because he alone showed passion and emotion for what he was doing. The other dancers had the technical prowess but, as Ben observed were more athletes than dancers. Ben invited Li to come to Houston as an exchange student and the Houston audiences fell in love with him. In an unprecedented move, this ballet student performed roles that are normally reserved for tenured soloists. He soon met and fell in love with an American dancer. When his exchange period expired, the Chinese government denied him an extension and ordered him to return home to China.

Think about this, I thought it was tough to leave my family and childhood home of New Orleans when I came to Houston for nursing school. The first night I was in my Houston dorm room, I cried myself to sleep like a baby.  I didn’t dare share this with my twin brother, Vince – he would have just told me to “buck-up.” Growing up in New Orleans kids were always hanging out at our house, but when it was time to go to sleep my parents believed kids should sleep in their own beds, not someone else’s. So other than staying at our grandparents for a couple of weeks every summer, this was the first time I was ever away from home.

Unlike Li, I’d get to see my family again any time I chose. When Li chose to stay in Houston, he was forced to defect and was not only banned from ever returning to China, but suffered nightmares of his family being executed as traitors (remember the time period) or being imprisoned for life for the “crime” of their son.

The movie is a beautiful story of courage and determination and will inspire anyone who sees it, to go for what they want – despite the unknown and no matter the cost. Li’s defection cost him in so many ways, yet he ventured into the unknown not even knowing if he would ever get a job – dancing or otherwise. He was soon asked to return to the Houston Ballet as a soloist – something unheard of for a novice dancer.

Li prospered and became one of the greatest dancers of the Houston Ballet’s company. I’ve seen Li and his wife dance many times and always remember his graceful power and passion.

Although I knew Li’s story and I knew how this movie would end, it still grabbed me in a way no other movie has this summer.

If you want to see a powerful movie about human courage, drive and desire, go see Mao’s Last Dancer. After you see it, you can’t help but be moved to succeed in your legal nurse consulting business or anything of your choosing.

Success Is Inside!

P.S. Comment and share your own favorite movie or motivational story.