Sad News For The Ballet World — Page 2

It is with deep sadness that I report the death of the great and beautiful Fernando Bujones. Apparently the news broke at 11am today. I was in the studio all day and did not know until I got home.
R.I.P. Fernando.

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Thank you Undi and Rath.
This really feels like a kick in the chest.

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Oh Glebby, I'm so sad.

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A detailed obituary can be found at the Orlando Sentinel site. Here's a snippet:

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Orlando Ballet leader, 50, dies of cancer

Diane Hubbard Burns, Sentinel Dance Critic
November 10, 2005, 2:11 PM EST

Fernando Bujones, artistic director of the Orlando Ballet and a Cuban-American ballet prodigy who earned a place among the great classical dancers of the late 20th century, died early today in Miami. He was 50.

"Fernando came to Orlando Ballet and took an average local company and made it into a world-class organization," said Tricia Earl, past president of the ballet board. "He was an exceptional gift to the world of dance -- not only as a performer but with the legacy he leaves."

Bujones, who had announced seven weeks ago that he had lung cancer, succumbed to complications from malignant melanoma, an aggressive form of skin cancer, Orlando Ballet executive director Russell Allen said. "It was a very brief and unexpected battle with melanoma, because they really thought they were battling lung cancer."

Bujones' wife, Maria, and his daughter from a previous marriage, Alejandra Kubitschek Bujones, were with him at a Miami hospital when he died.

Bujones, who had a globe-circling, 28-year performing career before he became a choreographer and company director, was regarded as one of the top male dancers in the world.

He was "the greatest American classical dancer of his generation," wrote New York Times critic Anna Kisselgoff on the occasion of Bujones' 1995 farewell performance with American Ballet Theatre, a company with which he had a more than two-decade association.

"Fernando will be missed as a friend and colleague by so many people," said American Ballet Theatre artistic director Kevin McKenzie, a fellow principal dancer with Bujones in the 1980s. "With his stellar career as a performer behind him, he was claiming another stellar career as a teacher and director that he leaves behind too soon. We are all poorer for it." ...

Asked in 2000 what he hoped his legacy might be, Bujones said, speaking of himself in the third person: "He can dramatically alter the artistic standards of a company by the outstanding knowledge and experience his career has enriched him with. Moreover, his humane, caring qualities place him in a class of his own. Every dancer who has worked with him has only the best to say about him."

The 28 dancers of the Orlando Ballet might say he got it right. In a statement issued soon after Bujones was diagnosed with cancer in September, they said:

"He has taught us to strive for perfection, and has infused into us his iron will and strength of mind. It is time for us to show him we have learned from his example."
Orlando Ballet leader, 50, dies of cancer

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Updated On: 11/10/05 at 10:34 PM

now he's dancing on the clouds. may the beauty he brought us live in our hearts forever ...

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Updated On: 11/11/05 at 06:08 AM

Thanks to you all for your sincere condolences.
As I sat at the front of the studio today coaching five Sugar Plum Fairies with their Cavalieres in the Grand Pas de Deux from Nutcracker, I thought of how lucky I am to have seen Bujones and Tcherkassky do this pas de deux. Bujones and Tcherkassky were my first Grand Pas couple and I saw them when I was in my teens. They were graduating students of School of American Ballet.

There was a moment early in the pas de deux where he offered his hand and she took it that I have tried to get the dancers I work with to replicate for years now. I'm sure Bujones and Tcherkassky were coached by Danilova. It was such a beautiful moment and I'll never not require it of my artists.

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"I'll never not require it of my artists."

And that, friends, is the definition of "artistic integrity."

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Thought I would share the tribute to Fernando that I posted on a ballet bulletin board.


Glebb
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When I was nine years old I took ballet classes at a marvelous open air theatre in Coral Gables, FL. The teacher was an old Russian man named George Millenoff. I was the only boy in class and Mr. Millenoff called me "Snow Vite" because on my first day of classes I showed up in a white leotard I had worn in a tap recital the year before.

Not long after my first day a young guy came to take class. I was excited to no longer be the only boy in class. The other boy was Fernando and because he was new he did not know that after barre all of the students did splits in the center of the floor. He also did not know that all students brought a hand towel to class. The open air theatre was very dirty, especially the floor so we washed our hands after splits. On the day I met Fernando, I offered my towel to him when we washed our hands. After class I came out into the waiting area and I heard him telling my father how many hours he practiced ballet and piano each day. I'll never forget the look of delight on my father's face hearing this information. My father was so impressed.

Not long after that I saw Fernando at SAB when I was there for the summer and many years later at Kennedy Center where I was the horn boy in Act III of SWAN LAKE for ABT (Lucia Chase was the Queen), Fernando, already a star remembered me in the elevator. I was so proud to be remembered and spoken to by him in front of all the other people.

Besides being the most beautiful male classical dancer of his time, he was a bit more athletic than Dowell my other hero, Fernando was a good person. For that he was my hero and will always be.

R.I.P. dear Fernando.

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It is with great sadness that I report the death of American Ballerina Rebecca Wright. Ms Wright succumbed to liver cancer at 9:45pm Sunday, January 29.

Rebecca Wright graced the cover of DANCE MAGAZINE in 1973 when she was the first dancer outside England's Royal Ballet to perform the role of Titania in Sir Frederick Ashton's THE DREAM. The Joffrey ballerina later joined American Ballet Theatre where she met and married George De La Pena. They had two sons. Recently Rebecca Wright, who many said was better than Gelsey Kirkland in Barysnikov's Nutcracker, was the school director of The Washington Ballet.

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Thanks Addy and Undi.
Becky was magical and I wish you could see the picture of her from 1973 with wild blonde hair, wreath and wings that I look at daily in my office.

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I've been informed that Becky died of liver cancer.

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I'm so sorry to hear of this sad news, Glebby!

Thinking good thoughts for you and the Wright family....