FERNANDO BUJONES Biography - Famous Poets and dancers

 
 

Biography » famous poets and dancers » fernando bujones

FERNANDO BUJONES

Name: Fernando Bujones                                                                       
Born: 9 March 1955                                                                           
Died: 10 November 2005                                                                       
                                                                                             
Fernando Bujones (March 9, 1955 - November 10, 2005) was a Cuban-American ballet             
dancer.                                                                                       
                                                                                             
Born in Miami, Florida to Cuban parents, Bujones is regarded as one of the                   
finest male dancers of the 20th century and hailed as the greatest American male             
dancer of his generation.                                                                     
                                                                                             
Bujones' first formal ballet classes were in Alicia Alonso's Cuban National                   
Ballet school for about a year and a half. In 1967 he won a scholarship to the               
School of American Ballet, the official school of the New York City Ballet                   
Company. He studied there for about five years; his teachers were some of the                 
world’s premier ballet instructors, such as Stanley Williams, André Eglevsky,             
and José Imendez, his private coach.                                                         
                                                                                             
He joined the American Ballet Theatre, one of the world's preeminent dance                   
companies, in 1972. By the following year he became a soloist, and in 1974 a                 
Principal Dancer where, at 19, he was not only one of the youngest principal                 
dancers in the world, but the youngest principal male dancer in ABT's history.               
It was during that period that Mikhail Baryshnikov defected from the Soviet                   
Union and joined ABT in 1974. They worked together as dancers for six years,                 
after which Bujones worked under Baryshnikov's artistic direction.                           
                                                                                             
Throughout his 30 year dancing career he performed as a guest artist in 34                   
countries and with more than 60 companies including such luminary ones like                   
American Ballet Theatre, the Royal Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet, the Paris Opera,                 
the Royal Danish Ballet, La Scala of Milano, the Vienna State Opera Ballet, the               
Australian Ballet, the National Ballet of Canada, Boston Ballet and others. He               
has partnered many of the 20th century's celebrated ballerinas such as Dame                   
Margot Fonteyn, Natalia Makarova, Carla Fracci, Cynthia Gregory, Marcia Haydee,               
Gelsey Kirkland, and Marianna Tcherkassky.                                                   
                                                                                             
Just before his death, Bujones staged Slavonic Elements for the Ballet Ensemble               
of Texas, a pre-professional company in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.                           
                                                                                             
He is buried at Caballero Rivero Woodlawn North Park Cemetery and Mausoleum.