Steven Heathcote

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.

This acclaimed adaptation of Tchaikovsky's fabled masterwork from Graeme Murphy and the Australian Ballet tells the story of a famous Russian ballerina who immigrates to Australia in the 1940s, only to find a newly tumultuous life awaiting. Noel Smith conducts the State Orchestra of Victoria, and Vicki Attard, Siobhan Elsmann, Steven Heathcote and Dame Margaret Scott star in this 1994 production. Nutcracker was recorded live at the State Theatre, Melbourne, Sep. 22, 1994.

Something in the Air was an Australian television soap opera transmitted by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation between 2000 and 2002. It was one of the first programs in Australia that was filmed in widescreen. It won the AACTA Award for Best Television Drama Series in 2001.