Professional Dancer - Fabian Sanchez
This year, Fabian Sanchez joins “Dancing with the Stars” as the partner of actress Marlee Matin. However, Fabian hasn’t always been a dancer…in fact, he got into it quite by accident.
Fabian was working at the Ryan’s Steakhouse in Birmingham, Alabama in 1992 when Al King, the area developer for the Fred Astaire Dance Studios, walked into the restaurant. King noticed that although Fabian was behind the counter getting him his diet coke, he was “posing like a matador.” King told him then and there that he was going to change his life and he did. King invited Fabian to apply to the Fred Astaire training program. Hoping of attending college and playing pro soccer one day, Fabian agreed, thinking it would just be a temporary summer job.
The “temporary job” has lasted fifteen years so far. Fabian and his wife Jacqueline are now the owners of the Birmingham studio. He is also a member of the Fred Astaire Dance Studios National Dance Board. Fabian has earned a number of national and world titles as a dancer, including as the United States Rising Star Champion, a four-time Fred Astaire National Champion, and a United States Open American Rhythm Finalist. He placed third in the World Mambo Championships. Fabian and partner Christina Penatello won the US Mambo Championship.
In addition, he serves as a professional coach and much-admired choreographer. Although Fabian is now retired from competition, many of his students have received regional and national dancing titles.
Fabian said that had it not been for King, none of this would have come true. “I don’t know what I’d be doing if it weren’t for King,” Fabian explains, “I grew up in Colombia so, for me, King initiated the American dream.” But, he also credits his “smart, beautiful” wife in helping keep everything together with the studio.
Besides dancing, Fabian also loves singing. He sang “Cali Pachanguero” at the Dancing with Desire benefit in Florida. And, of course, soccer is still dear to his heart. “In the beginning,” Fabian says, “I wasn’t the most artistic dancer but I danced hard with all my heart. Soccer gave me that competitive spirit of never giving up and giving 150% of myself always.”
This season, Marlee, who is deaf, is counting on newcomer Fabian to help guide her through the steps. In fact, she has said of Fabian, “He’s my music.”
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