Fernando Schaffenburg

A few weeks ago i received an email from my friend Karen Schaffenburg, with very sad news.. My dear friend Fernando Schaffenburg had passed away...

Nando, as the people who love him liked to call him was and extraordinary man, altough i just had the pleasure to work with him for a few weeks, i enjoyed very much that experience and even now, 12 years later of that experience i still think HE is the very best artistic director i ever have had....

Nando was the perfect incarnation of the danseur noble, so elegant, so proper at all times, yet vigorous, energetic, with a great sense of humor. we use to joke a lot, before, during and after my peformances as guest artist for North texas Ballet.

He always show me lots of respect as a dancer and as a person, wich is something most artistic directors miss very often, there's so many pedant and prepotent directors all around the world, that when i noticed the respect and camadery wich Nando and his lovely wife Karen treated me, i knew he was a real top class dancer. I just felt he could undestand me, and use my talent, not felt threatened by it as some other envious director i met before and after wich cannot deal with a dancer better than they were theirselves.

With Nando we had a couple of jokes we used to remember anytime we had the chance to be in contact... The prime one is about a mexican chili sauce, he asked me to bring to Forthworth assuming i wouldn't and i actually brought an small mexican sauce can with me for him so we laugh about it for years.
I often remember, and in these weeks since i knew the terrible notice more often, one day we went to have dinner, i guess with us were only Karen and Oscar, the other mexican dancer than came with me. and i orderer some french fries and Fernando's asked me for just one. I didn't knew he was diabetic and felt very ashamed of it. Since then every time i have french fries i think of him.

Nando is remembered by several mexican dancers of his time, in the obituare Karen sent to me didn't mention nothing about his career in Mexico, but lots of people i have known since then remember him as the perfect dancer noble he was in and out stage.

Rest in peace my dear friend. Suddenly seems that heaven its ensambling a ballet all star company, with the recent departures of Fernando Bujones, Pina Bausch, Maurice Bejart, Ekaterina Maximova, and now Fernando Schaffenburg heaven it's getting filled with lots of terrific dancer, so i guess i'd enjoyed it when i get there (if)