MINNEAPOLIS — Few people who shopped at the little neighborhood Oak Grove grocery knew the likable clerk, 66-year-old Robert Skafte, was once a leading man of dance in the Twin Cities. He was stabbed fatally behind his check-out counter and bled out before he could be gotten to a hospital last week. On stage he was known as inventive and imaginative. His main company over the years was Ballet of the Dolls. He starred as Don Jose in “Carmen,” as Duke Albrecht in “Giselle,” and as Salvador Dali in the title character in the spoof “Hello, Dali!” Among his collaborators interviewed by the Minneapolis Star Tribune:
> Myron Johnson, Dolls founder: “It’s hard to wrap your head around something so tragic happening to someone so sweet. Robert was rare because he was a great dancer who could also act. He was such a bright light.”
> Stephanie Fellner Grey, who danced with Skafte, called his death “evil colliding with the brightest of light.” She said: “I can’t even begin to wrap my head around the loss of our dear Robert. Our hearts ache and are broken, crying out to try and make any sense of this horror.”
Friends and admirers placed flowers at a spontaneous memorial outside the Oak Grove Grocery in the Loring Park neighborhood.
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Skafte. In a promotional photo for “Tennessee Three.”
And more recently at a community event in Loring Park.