Reared with an appreciation for the arts, Fernando Bujones began dancing at age 8. He received a full scholarship and Ford Foundation Grant to study under renowned teachers Stanley Williams and Alexandra Danilova at the School of American Ballet in 1967. At the Seventh International Ballet Competition in Bulgaria, Bujones became the first American male to to win the coveted Gold Medal and the Highest Technical Achievement Award. He is the first American dancer to guest star with the Paris Opera Ballet in more than a century, the youngest recipient of the Dance Magazine Award and the first American to dance with the Bolshoi Ballet. After Bujones’ farewell performance in 1995, critic Clives Barnes said of him: “He is the finest classical male dancer this country has ever produced.”