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The Hot List
PEOPLE AND THINGS THAT
ARE MAKING THIS CITY SIZZLE

 
Hoover resident Fabian Sanchez and his dance partner,
Academy Award-wining actress Marlee Matlin, may not have won season six of Dancing with the Stars, but Sanchez’s larger-than-life personality and exuberance for our city ensure his place on our 2008 Hot List. And boy can he dance!

Born in New York City, Sanchez spent his childhood in his parents’ native Colombia and has lived in Birmingham since he was a teenager. His dream was to become a professional soccer player but a summer job teaching dance at a Fred Astaire Franchised Dance Studio turned into his career for the past 16 years.

“I didn’t come in here wanting to stay,” says Sanchez, “but I just fell in love with the dancing, I thought it was so cool and I saw the opportunities that I could have. And, here in this business you could be a United States champion or a world champion, you could be a coach, manager, supervisor, whatever you want to do, you can do in this business.”

Sanchez has indeed achieved much in his career. He and his wife Jacqueline own a Fred Astaire Franchised Dance Studio in Hoover, he’s a four-time Fred Astaire National Champion and in 2006 was the World Mambo Champion. It was this feat along with the support of his good friend Maksim “Maks” Chmerkovskiy, a Dancing with the Stars veteran, which catapulted his name to the forefront of contenders for a coveted spot on season six of the show. The experience was a whirlwind. He was called on Thursday night and had to be in Los Angeles three days later to begin practicing with Matlin. Days were spent practicing, appearing at numerous special events, doing interviews and signing autographs.

Now that this season has ended, Sanchez is traveling around the country making appearances with Matlin, attending charity events and coaching and judging throughout the Fred Astaire organization. He’s also enjoying time with his wife and son at home and at their studio while waiting to hear if he’ll be selected for the next season of Dancing with the Stars.

But, Sanchez says that a permanent move to Los Angeles is not in his future. To prove his love for his home Sanchez tells a story from a night spent at a Los Angeles club along with the other Dancing with the Stars celebrities and professionals.

He says, “One night Kid Rock was [at this club] and he decided to get up there and sing three times. He did two of his songs. The last thing he sang, I mean I went nuts because it was ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ ... Every time I hear that song when I’m out of town, it reminds me of how much I love this place, how much I love being here and I’m so glad I chose to stay in this city. When that song comes on, especially that night and everybody, all my friends, the dancers and celebrities from the show, obviously everybody knows I live here, so everybody came and hugged me and started singing with me. ... It was so cool, man to hear that song over there. That’s it, I’m just happy to be here, happy to be able to see my family and I’m happy for the people with Dancing with the Stars to give me an amazing opportunity to be able to expand my career and be able to take it to as high of a level as it is to be on that show. Really the staff there, the dancers, it’s really like a dream team to be able to perform along with some of the best dancers in the world. I feel very privileged to be able to be a part of it. It’s been great.” —MEMS


Birmingham Museum of Art

The Birmingham Museum of Art is on a roll with no signs of slowing down.
Even if you’re not typically one for art or museums, you’ve probably attended the Art on the Rocks series or the blockbuster exhibit, Pompeii: Tales from an Eruption, which brought in more than 95,000 people. The doors had barely closed on Pompeii when the exhibit Leonardo da Vinci: Drawings from the Biblioteca Reale in Turin was announced. Organized by the BMA, these drawings have never before left Italy as a group and this fall, Birmingham will be the first U.S. stop.

At just past the half century mark, the BMA has established itself as one of the premiere art museums in the Southeast but recently, the museum is reaching out in creative and effective ways and folks are taking notice both in our region and beyond (Pompeii attracted visitors from 42 states). With two back-toback blockbuster shows more and more people have learned that the BMA is also home to a vast permanent collection, and there is always a steady rotation of two or three smaller traveling exhibits. When asked about the buzz surrounding the museum these days, Director Gail Andrews emphasizes, “People can come everyday and have a cultural experience with the permanent collection— and for free. We have an amazing collection and we want to continue to remind people that this community has built a collection of 18,000 objects that tells 5,000 years of art history.”

Melanie Parker, director of public relations and marketing, says, “When you get the word out, people come. People are looking for this experience.”

Visit the recently revamped arts bma.org for more info. —MEMS

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November Birmingham, Alabama

  

 
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