Normally on a Monday I'd be participating in Sheila's It's Monday, What are you reading? meme, but I feel like I've done the Best of 2011, 2011 survey, and my December wrap-up in the past couple of days so that I don't' really need to do a what I read last week post.
Instead, I am going to rave about the movie I saw last night: Mao's Last Dancer. We received the book Mao's Last Dancer at my school library the same week the DVD showed up at my house from Netflix. I felt like this was a sign: watch this movie! I thought it was going to be kinda' boring but we (my daughter, my parents and I) finally got around to watching it last night.
Wow! An Australian company made this film so it wasn't sensationalized (sorry Hollywood), but rather was an intimate look at how children in China were chosen at a young age to attend athletic/dance schools, their training, and how Li Cunxin had the opportunity to go to the US as a student one summer. I don't want to give away what happens once he comes to the US, but it's a great story full of heartache, hope, and beautiful dancing.
The story is true, which make it even more interesting. Here are two links if you are interested: This link about the movie tells you about the amazing cast and more while this link tells the biography of Lu Cunxin, the dancer.
The best part? Now I feel like I can really "sell" this book to students when we get back to school this week.
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