The Queensland Ballet’s Artistic Director will make a one-off appearance, along with his wife Mary, in The Nutcracker in December.

It’s been 18 years since Li Cunxin last danced on stage, giving his final professional performance with the Australian Ballet in Don Quixote in 1999. But the man, whose extraordinary life story was told in the film Mao’s Last Dancer, based on his best-selling autobiography of the same name, is readying himself to come out of retirement for one night only.

^{Li Cunxin. Photograph courtesy of Queensland Ballet}

Announcing Queensland Ballet’s 2018 season yesterday, Li revealed that he will play the magician Drosselmeyer in Ben Stevenson’s production of The Nutcracker for QB on December 10. His wife Mary Li (née McKendry) will also dance in the same performance, playing one of the parents at the Christmas Eve party in the first act of the popular ballet.

Now 56, Li told ABC News that he is “more than nervous, actually a bit petrified. I have a lot of work to do I need to get back in shape. There is some hard work ahead of me. I think I will have to...