‘Mao’s Last Dancer’ Li Cunxin launches final season at Queensland Ballet

The story of fashion pioneer Coco Chanel, told through dance and with elegant costumes, is a highlight of Li Cunxin’s final season at Queensland Ballet.

Joel Woellner and Mia Heathcote in Queensland Ballet’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which will be part of the company’s 2024 program. Picture: David Kelly

Li Cunxin says he has mixed feelings about announcing his final season as artistic director at Queensland Ballet, having announced in June his early retirement because of health troubles.

Li, also known as Mao’s Last Dancer, has led the state ballet company into remarkable growth since his first season in 2012.

The 2024 program includes a new ballet about fashion pioneer Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel and a long-postponed tour from Shanghai Ballet with The Lady of the Camellias.

“It’s a bittersweet feeling,” Li said on Monday.

“When I started to put this program together a few years ago, it never crossed my mind that this would be my last time announcing a new season. But I am excited about the season, because I think it is one of the strongest line-ups of my past 11 years.”

Artistic director Li Cunxin launches Queensland Ballet’s 2024 season. Picture: Liam Kidston

Coco Chanel: The Life of a Fashion Icon, by Belgian-Colombian choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, promises to transport audiences to Paris in the 1920s when Chanel established her fashion business there.

The production is a venture ­between Atlanta Ballet and Hong Kong Ballet, where it had its world premiere earlier this year and sold out in 48 hours.

It was not a partnership with Chanel’s label or estate, Li said, but costume designer Jerome ­Kaplan had captured the essence of her look, including the little black dress and layered strings of pearls.

“Coco’s life is fascinating, the subject of movies and documentaries, and her life is quite colourful – she went through the Second World War, she was incredibly ambitious, and she really transformed the fashion industry,” he said.

Yanela Pinera as Coco Chanel. Picture: David Kelly

The ballet season also includes Greg Horsman’s version of Coppelia, set in rural Hahndorf, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream by late British choreographer Liam Scarlett.

QB took A Midsummer Night’s Dream to Shanghai in 2018, and the Shanghai Ballet is at last able to return the visit. Its Brisbane season of The Lady of the Camellias was originally planned for early 2020 and was one of the first tours to be postponed ­because of the pandemic.

Li, 62, revealed in June that he has had surgery for a heart condition and his wife, Mary Li, ballet mistress at QB, was undergoing treatment for cancer. He said he was retiring from the company in order to give full attention to his and Mary’s health.

He will finish at the company on December 20 after the final performance of The Nutcracker.

An announcement about his successor as artistic director was expected within weeks, he said.