Watch Wednesday, May 6, 2026 at 9:30 p.m. on KPBS 2 + Encore Friday, May 29, 2026 at 9:30 p.m. on KPBS 2
George Lee was a pioneering Asian dancer who originated a featured role in George Balanchine’s "The Nutcracker" 70 years ago as a teenage immigrant from China. He has been a prodigy, a refugee, an immigrant and a pioneer in the dance world. Up until his passing on April 20, 2025, he had been a blackjack dealer in Las Vegas, a humble and beloved figure at the Four Queens Hotel & Casino who worked five days a week.
"Ten Times Better" tells George Lee’s uniquely American story of perseverance in the face of hardship, of talent overcoming long odds, and a reminder of the remarkable lives behind the anonymous faces all around us. The 30-minute documentary is set against the sweep of history—war, hunger, dislocation—and ranges from occupied Shanghai to the Philippine jungles to midcentury Manhattan, and finally the glitzy lights of Vegas. Archival film, personal photographs and vintage television footage bring the story to life, along with contemporary interviews.
George Lee was born in Hong Kong in 1935 to a Polish ballerina; his father was a Chinese acrobat who was serving as a military translator when he died in a truck accident in the mountains of China. After moving to Shanghai in 1941, Lee’s mother, Stanislawa Lee, trained her son in the rigors of classical ballet, as she had been taught by Russian instructors at the Warsaw Opera. George Lee also attended ballet class with adult Russians, part of the large Russian community in Shanghai. George danced as a child novelty act in nightclubs, sometimes paid in rice. When the Chinese civil war threatened in 1949, mother and child fled with thousands of Eastern Europeans in a United Nations-sponsored ship that deposited them in the Tubabao refugee camp in the Philippines. They stayed for two years before a family friend sponsored their move to New York City. There, the family friend arranged for an audition at the School of American Ballet, the training ground for the fledgling New York City Ballet, founded just three years earlier.
George Lee, despite not dancing for two years in the refugee camp, drew on his years of training to nail the audition and receive a scholarship. In 1954, as Balanchine was working on his new version of Tchaikovsky’s 1892 ballet "The Nutcracker." For a divertissement called “Tea,” meant to evoke China, he cast George Lee, then 18. The choreographer asked the teenager what his strengths were—he demonstrated leaps, splits and spins—and incorporated them into the dance. Lee was lauded by critics for his “unbelievable elevations,” and the man who took over the role from him said “none of us have ever been able to equal” his performance. Denied a place with the City Ballet (“too short,” he was told), he turned to Broadway, urged by director Gene Kelly to join the mostly-Asian cast of a new Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, "Flower Drum Song." For the next 20 years he danced on Broadway and in touring shows and revues. He retired from dance in 1980 and learned to deal blackjack.
After more than 40 years in his second career, George Lee was surprised to be contacted by filmmaker Jennifer Lin, who had learned of him while researching Asians in ballet. The result is this film.
Visit: https://www.tentimesbetterfilm.com/ / Facebook / Instagram / TikTok
Credits: Directed by Jennifer Lin. Produced by Jon Funabiki, Jennifer Lin and Cory Lin Stieg. Executive Producer for CAAM is Stephen Gong. Edited by Rachel Sophia Stewart. Director of Photography is Paul Van Haute. Animation by Jacob Rivkin. Original Music by Andrew Yee and Josu Gallastegui. For American Masters Shorts, Joe Skinner is series producer. For AMERICAN MASTERS, Michael Kantor is executive producer, and Julie Sacks is series producer. A production of Pentalina Productions LLC, in association with American Masters Pictures and the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) with funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
