Sad News For The Ballet World

Fernando Bujones one of the great American Ballet Theatre dancers of the 70s and 80s and an inspiration to many young male dancers of that time has been diagnosed with lung cancer.


From The Orlando Sentinel:

Bujones, 50, is a Cuban-American ballet prodigy who soared to fame in 1974 as the first American to win a gold medal at the International Ballet Competition. Since 2000, he has directed Orlando's 28-member professional ballet company. He also has been instrumental in reaching out to the area's Hispanic community and increasing the ballet's Hispanic audiences.

"Locally, he has been an incredible source of pride," said Lizette Valarino, assistant to Orange County Mayor Rich Crotty and the mayor's liaison to the Hispanic community.

Bujones' diagnosis comes on the heels of two other prominent lung-cancer cases. ABC anchorman Peter Jennings, 67, died of lung cancer Aug. 7. Two days later, Dana Reeve, the 44-year-old widow of actor Christopher Reeve and chairwoman of the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, announced she is undergoing treatment for lung cancer.

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If Baryshnikov had not defected everyone on this board would have at least heard of Bujones. He was a dancer of the highest caliber. I met him when I was nine years old, in class, in Miami. He was not a smoker.

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Thanks Addy.
This hit like a ton of bricks.

Though everyone knew he would soon be a ballet superstar it was Makarova who demanded that the teenage ABT corps member Bujones be her partner at ABT.

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Yes, it is shocking.
I'm sure there will be many tributes for a very long time.

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Glebb - my thoughts will be with Bujones and his family and friends!!!!!

You are all very sweet.
I know he will feel the love.

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In form, in moving, how express and admirable!
In action how like an angel!
In apprehension how like a god!
The beauty of the world!
The paragon of animals!
--Shakespeare

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Updated On: 9/28/05 at 11:09 PM

PalJoey always has the perfect post...

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Exquisite.

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PJ - such a talent!

This must be what he looked like when Makarova picked him.

(I think I might have picked him then too!)

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What very sad, sad news.

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Like DGrant, I don't claim to be knowledgable about the world of dance, but I also have a huge appreciation for the art form, and I just wanted to say how sorry I am to hear this news. (And how tragic that he, like Dana Reeve, was not a smoker!)

And what a beautiful dancer! (Thank you for the lovely images, PalJoey.)

My thoughts and prayers are with him.