At the age of six, Fernando Bujones began to learn ballet in Havana at the school of a famous ballerina, Alicia Alonso, which is where his mother took him before they moved permanently to Miami.
10 Facts About Fernando Bujones
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Fernando Bujones's mother, who was a former dancer, enrolled him in these dance classes due to his poor constitution as a child.
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In 1980, Fernando Bujones married Marcia Kubitschek, daughter of Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira, president of Brazil from 1956 to 1961.
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Just before his death, Fernando Bujones completed his autobiography, which was released in 2009 by his long-time coach Zeida Cecilia Mendez.
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Fernando Bujones was buried at Caballero Rivero Woodlawn North Park Cemetery and Mausoleum in Miami.
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Fernando Bujones studied there for about five years; his teachers were some of the world's premier ballet instructors, such as Stanley Williams, Andre Eglevsky, and Zeida Cecilia Mendez, his private coach.
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In 1974, Fernando Bujones became the first American male dancer to win the Gold Medal at the International Ballet Competition in Varna, Bulgaria, where he was cited for "highest technical achievement".
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Fernando Bujones joined the American Ballet Theatre, one of the world's preeminent dance companies, in 1972.
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Fernando Bujones 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.
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Fernando Bujones became the artistic director, for a brief time, of Ballet Mississippi in 1993 and remained until the company folded due to a lack of funding.