Dame Margot Fonteyn de Arias, DBE (18 May 191921 February 1991), was an
EnglishThe English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
ballerina of the 20th century. She is widely regarded as one of the greatest
classical balletClassical Ballet is the most formal of the ballet styles, it adheres to traditional ballet technique. There are variations relating to area of origin, such as Russian ballet, French ballet, British ballet and Italian ballet...
dancers of all time. She spent her entire career as a dancer with the Royal Ballet, eventually being appointed
Prima Ballerina AssolutaPrima ballerina assoluta is a rank or title given to notable female ballet dancers. To be recognised as a prima ballerina assoluta is a very rare honour, reserved only for the most exceptional soloists, usually those who have achieved international acclaim....
of the company by HM Queen Elizabeth II.
Early life
Fonteyn was born Margaret Hookham on 18 May 1919 in
ReigateReigate is a historic market town in Surrey, England, at the foot of the North Downs, and in the London commuter belt. It is one of the main constituents of the Borough of Reigate and Banstead...
,
SurreySurrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
, to an
EnglishThe English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
father and an
IrishThe Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
and
BrazilBrazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
ian mother; her mother's father was the industrialist Antonio Fontes of Brazil. Very early in her career, Margaret transformed the
Fontes into
Fonteyn (a surname her brother adopted as well) and Margaret into Margot: thus her stage name. Among her father's family were people in literature and music, but he was an engineer.
When she was four her mother signed her up for ballet classes with her older brother. At age eight, Margot made the long journey to
ChinaChinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
with her mother and father, who had taken employment with a tobacco company there; her brother Felix remained at his school. For six years Margot lived in Tientsin then in
ShanghaiShanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
, where she studied ballet with the
RussianThe Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
émigré teacher George Goncharov. Her mother brought her back to London when she was 14 in order to pursue a ballet career. Continuing to work in Shanghai, her father was interned during World War II by the invading
JapanJapan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese.
In 1933, she joined the Vic-Wells Ballet School, the predecessor of today's Royal Ballet School. She trained under the direction of
Ninette de ValoisDame Ninette de Valois, OM, CH, DBE, FRAD, FISTD was an Irish-born British dancer, teacher, choreographer and director of classical ballet...
and teachers including
Olga PreobrajenskaOlga Iosifovna Preobrajenska was probably the best loved ballerina of the Russian Imperial Ballet....
and
Mathilde KschessinskaMathilda-Marie Feliksovna Kschessinskaya She was known in the West as Mathilde Kschessinska or Matilda Kshesinskaya.- Life :Kschessinska was born at Ligovo, near Peterhof. Like all her Polish family, to whom she was known as Matylda Krzesińska, Mathilde performed at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre...
. After starting with the Vic-Wells Ballet, she rose quickly through the ranks of the company. By 1939, Fonteyn had performed principal roles in
Giselle,
Swan Lake and
The Sleeping Beauty and was appointed
Prima Ballerina.
Fonteyn was most noted in the ballets of
Sir Frederick AshtonSir Frederick William Mallandaine Ashton OM, CH, CBE was a leading international dancer and choreographer. He is most noted as the founder choreographer of The Royal Ballet in London, but also worked as a director and choreographer of opera, film and theatre revues.-Early life:Ashton was born at...
, including
Ondine,
Daphnis and ChloeDaphnis and Chloe is the only known work of the 2nd century AD Greek novelist and romancer Longus.-Setting and style:It is set on the isle of Lesbos during the 2nd century AD, which is also assumed to be the author's home. Its style is rhetorical and pastoral; its shepherds and shepherdesses are...
, and
SylviaSylvia, originally Sylvia, ou La nymphe de Diane, is a full-length ballet in two or three acts, first choreographed by Louis Mérante to music by Léo Delibes in 1876. Sylvia is a typical classical ballet in many respects, yet it has many interesting features which make it unique...
. She was especially renowned for her portrayal of Aurora in
TchaikovskyPyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский ; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij"...
's
The Sleeping Beauty. (Televised versions of
Sleeping Beauty and Ashton's version of
Cinderella"Cinderella; or, The Little Glass Slipper" is a folk tale embodying a myth-element of unjust oppression/triumphant reward. Thousands of variants are known throughout the world. The title character is a young woman living in unfortunate circumstances that are suddenly changed to remarkable fortune...
are now available on
DVDA DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
.) Fonteyn also worked with the choreographer
Roland PetitRoland Petit was a French choreographer and dancer born in Villemomble, near Paris, France. He trained at the Paris Opéra Ballet school, and became well known for his creative ballets.-Biography:...
and later in life,
Martha GrahamMartha Graham was an American modern dancer and choreographer whose influence on dance has been compared with the influence Picasso had on modern visual arts, Stravinsky had on music, or Frank Lloyd Wright had on architecture.She danced and choreographed for over seventy years...
. In 1949 when the Royal Ballet toured the United States, Fonteyn instantly became a celebrity for her performances.
Dancing with Rudolf Nureyev and others
In the 1940s, she and
Robert HelpmannSir Robert Helpmann CBE was an Australian dancer, actor, theatre director and choreographer.-Early years:He was born Robert Murray Helpman in Mount Gambier, South Australia and also boarded at Prince Alfred College in Adelaide. From childhood, Helpman had a strong desire to be a dancer...
formed a very successful dance partnership, and they toured together for several years. In the 1950s, she danced regularly with
Michael SomesMichael George Somes CBE , was a leading English ballet dancer. He was a principal danseur of the Royal Ballet, London, and was the frequent partner of Margot Fonteyn....
(they had first danced together in 1938, when they created
Constant LambertLeonard Constant Lambert was a British composer and conductor.-Early life:Lambert, the son of Russian-born Australian painter George Lambert, was educated at Christ's Hospital and the Royal College of Music...
's
HoroscopeHoroscope is a ballet created in 1937 by Frederick Ashton with scenery by Sophie Fedorovich and music by Constant Lambert. It is based on astrological themes, and is reminiscent of Gustav Holst's The Planets in its musical exploration of the mystical. The story of the ballet concerns a young man...
). In 1955, they danced together in the first ever color telecast of a ballet, NBC's production of
The Sleeping Beauty. In 1958 they appeared together in the first British televised version of
The NutcrackerThe Nutcracker is a two-act ballet, originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto is adapted from E.T.A. Hoffmann's story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King". It was given its première at the Mariinsky Theatre in St...
.
Fonteyn began her greatest artistic partnership at a time when many (including the head of the Royal Ballet,
Ninette de ValoisDame Ninette de Valois, OM, CH, DBE, FRAD, FISTD was an Irish-born British dancer, teacher, choreographer and director of classical ballet...
) thought she was about to retire. In 1961
Rudolf NureyevRudolf Khametovich Nureyev was a Russian dancer, considered one of the most celebrated ballet dancers of the 20th century. Nureyev's artistic skills explored expressive areas of the dance, providing a new role to the male ballet dancer who once served only as support to the women.In 1961 he...
defected to the West, and on 21 February 1962, he and Fonteyn first performed together in
GiselleGiselle is a ballet in two acts with a libretto by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Théophile Gautier, music by Adolphe Adam, and choreography by Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot. The librettist took his inspiration from a poem by Heinrich Heine...
. She was 42 and he was 24. Their performance was a great success; during the curtain calls Nureyev dropped to his knees and kissed Fonteyn's hand. They created an on-and-offstage partnership that lasted until her 1979 retirement, and were lifelong friends. Fonteyn and Nureyev became known for inspiring repeated frenzied curtain calls and bouquet tosses.
Ashton choreographed
Marguerite and ArmandMarguerite and Armand is a ballet danced to Franz Liszt's B minor piano sonata. It was created in 1963 by renowned choreographer Sir Frederick Ashton specifically for world-famous dancers Rudolf Nureyev and Dame Margot Fonteyn...
for them, which no other couple danced until the 21st century. They debuted
Kenneth MacMillanSir Kenneth MacMillan was a British ballet dancer and choreographer. He was artistic director of the Royal Ballet in London between 1970 and 1977.-Early years:...
's
Romeo and JulietRomeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...
, although MacMillan had conceived the ballet for
Lynn SeymourLynn Seymour is a retired Canadian ballerina and choreographer.She was born Lynn Springbett and studied ballet in Vancouver....
and
Christopher GableChristopher Gable, CBE was an English ballet dancer, choreographer, and actor.Born in London, Gable studied at the Royal Ballet School, joining the Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet in 1957...
. Fonteyn and Nureyev appeared together in the filmed versions of MacMillan's
Romeo and Juliet,
Swan LakeSwan Lake ballet, op. 20, by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, composed 1875–1876. The scenario, initially in four acts, was fashioned from Russian folk tales and tells the story of Odette, a princess turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer's curse. The choreographer of the original production was Julius Reisinger...
,
Les SylphidesLes Sylphides is a short, non-narrative ballet blanc. Its original choreography was by Michel Fokine, with music by Frédéric Chopin orchestrated by Alexander Glazunov. Glazunov had already set some of the music in 1892 as a purely orchestral suite, under the title Chopiniana, Op. 46...
, and the
Le Corsaire Pas de Deux.
Despite differences in background and temperament, and a 19-year gap in ages, Nureyev and Fonteyn became close lifelong friends and were famously loyal to each other. Fonteyn would not approve an unflattering photograph of Nureyev. He said about her:
"At the end of 'Lac des Cygnes' when she left the stage in her great white tutu I would have followed her to the end of the world."
The well-known photojournalist
Michael PetoMichael Peto was an internationally recognized Hungarian-British photojournalist of the twentieth century. Emigrating to London before World War II through business, in the postwar years he became one of a generation of Hungarian artists working abroad. During the war, he worked for the British...
took many images of Fonteyn and Nureyev, helping their artistry to become widely known and part of the national culture.
The extent of their physical relationship remains unclear; Nureyev said that they had one while Fonteyn denied it. Her biographer Meredith Daneman agreed with Nureyev.
They remained close even after she retired to a
PanamaPanama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...
cattle farm with her husband. Fonteyn would talk with Nureyev by phone several times a week, although her farmhouse did not have a telephone. When she had to be treated for
cancerCancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
, Nureyev paid many of her medical bills and visited her often, despite his busy schedule as a performer and choreographer. In a documentary about Fonteyn, Nureyev said that they danced with "one body, one soul" and that Margot was "all he had, only her." An observer said that "If most people are at level A, they were at level Z." (Nureyev had his own health problems as he was HIV positive. He died of
AIDSAcquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
in 1993).
In the extremely competitive world of ballet, Fonteyn was renowned for her consummate professionalism and loyalty to her friends. Her dancing stood out for its lyricism, grace, and passion. Although Fonteyn was the Royal Ballet's biggest star, its director, Dame
Ninette de ValoisDame Ninette de Valois, OM, CH, DBE, FRAD, FISTD was an Irish-born British dancer, teacher, choreographer and director of classical ballet...
, cultivated other talents, so that the Royal Ballet of Fonteyn's day also featured
Nadia NerinaNadia Nerina was a South African ballerina. She moved to England and joined the Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet, where she became a prima ballerina at the age of 25. She was one of the first western dancers to appear with the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow during the Cold War...
,
Svetlana BeriosovaSvetlana Beriosova was a British prima ballerina who danced with the Royal Ballet of England for more than 20 years....
,
Lynn SeymourLynn Seymour is a retired Canadian ballerina and choreographer.She was born Lynn Springbett and studied ballet in Vancouver....
, and
Antoinette SibleyDame Antoinette Sibley, DBE is an English prima ballerina. She joined the Royal Ballet in 1956 and became a soloist in 1960. During her time there she was the Royal Ballet's most popular star...
.
Relationships
During the late 1930s and early 1940s, Fonteyn had a long relationship with composer
Constant LambertLeonard Constant Lambert was a British composer and conductor.-Early life:Lambert, the son of Russian-born Australian painter George Lambert, was educated at Christ's Hospital and the Royal College of Music...
. Lambert expressed some aspects of this in his ballet
HoroscopeHoroscope is a ballet created in 1937 by Frederick Ashton with scenery by Sophie Fedorovich and music by Constant Lambert. It is based on astrological themes, and is reminiscent of Gustav Holst's The Planets in its musical exploration of the mystical. The story of the ballet concerns a young man...
(1938).
In 1955, Fonteyn married Dr.
Roberto AriasRoberto Emilio Arias , known as "Tito", was a Panamanian international lawyer, diplomat and journalist who was the husband of Dame Margot Fonteyn...
, a Panamanian
diplomatA diplomat is a person appointed by a state to conduct diplomacy with another state or international organization. The main functions of diplomats revolve around the representation and protection of the interests and nationals of the sending state, as well as the promotion of information and...
to London. Their marriage was initially a rocky one due to his infidelities. She was arrested when he attempted a
coup against the Panamanian government. In 1964, a rival Panamanian politician shot Arias, leaving him a quadriplegic for the rest of his life. Information released on 28 May 2010 indicated Dame Margot knew of, and at one point was involved in, the
coup attempt.
After her retirement, she spent all her time in Panama, and was close to her husband and his children from an earlier marriage. Shortly before her husband's death, Fonteyn was diagnosed with a cancer that proved fatal. She died on 21 February 1991 in a hospital in
Panama CityPanama is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Panama. It has a population of 880,691, with a total metro population of 1,272,672, and it is located at the Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal, in the province of the same name. The city is the political and administrative center of the...
,
PanamaPanama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...
.
Legacy and honours
- Fonteyn was awarded a DBE (made a dame) in 1956 at the age of 37.
- She was chancellor of the University of Durham from 1981 to 1990. The main hall in Dunelm House, the Student Union building, is named the Fonteyn Ballroom in her honour. Also, the foyer to the Great Hall of University College, Durham
University College, commonly known as Castle, is a college of the University of Durham in England. Centred around Durham Castle on Palace Green, it was founded in 1832 and is the oldest of Durham's colleges. As with all of Durham's colleges, it is, independently of the University, a listed body...
in Durham Castle is named after Dame Margot Fonteyn. Fonteyn Court, one of the accommodation buildings at the Parsons Field site of St. Cuthbert's Society, is also named in her honour.
- Margot Fonteyn was one of five "Women of Achievement" selected for a set of British stamps issued in August 1996.
- In her hometown of Reigate, a statue stands in tribute http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/630775.
Miscellany
Fonteyn wrote the Introduction for
WushuChinese martial arts, also referred to by the Mandarin Chinese term wushu and popularly as kung fu , are a number of fighting styles that have developed over the centuries in China. These fighting styles are often classified according to common traits, identified as "families" , "sects" or...
! The Chinese Way To Family Health and Fitness. The book was translated for the Western market by Timothy Tung from a series of official handbooks published in China by The People's Sports Publishing House,
BeijingBeijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
.
Fonteyn has a school named in her honour, the only school her estate has allowed to do so in Peekskill, New York,
http://fonteynacademy.org/sections/
Film and television
Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev starred together in a colour film of
Swan Lake in 1967. Under the guidance of the noted director
Paul CzinnerPaul Czinner was a writer, film director, and producer.Czinner was born in Budapest, Austria-Hungary. After studying literature and philosophy at the University of Vienna, he worked as a journalist. From 1919 onward, he dedicated himself to work for the filming industry as writer, director and...
, they also filmed their famous version of
Romeo and Juliet in 1966.
Fonteyn had appeared with
Michael SomesMichael George Somes CBE , was a leading English ballet dancer. He was a principal danseur of the Royal Ballet, London, and was the frequent partner of Margot Fonteyn....
in a live U.S. television colour production of Tchaikovsky's
The Sleeping Beauty (1955), for the anthology series
Producers' ShowcaseProducers' Showcase is an American anthology television series that was telecast live during the 1950s in compatible color by NBC. With top talent, the 90-minute episodes, covering a wide variety of genres, aired under the title every fourth Monday at 8 p.m. ET for three seasons, beginning October...
, on NBC. This production has been preserved on black-and-white
kinescopeKinescope , shortened to kine , also known as telerecording in Britain, is a recording of a television program made by filming the picture from a video monitor...
, and released on DVD. Fonteyn starred with Somes in a 1958 British TV production of
The NutcrackerThe Nutcracker is a two-act ballet, originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto is adapted from E.T.A. Hoffmann's story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King". It was given its première at the Mariinsky Theatre in St...
. (This is not to be confused with the live U.S. television production telecast by
CBSCBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
on
Playhouse 90Playhouse 90 is an American television anthology series that was telecast on CBS from 1956 to 1960 for a total of 133 episodes. It originated from CBS Television City in Los Angeles, California...
.)
The BBC made a film about Fonteyn in 2009, based on Daneman's biography and starring
Anne-Marie DuffAnne-Marie Duff is an English actress best known for playing Fiona Gallagher in Shameless, and Elizabeth I in The Virgin Queen.-Early life:...
as the ballerina. It aired on 30 November 2009.
Tony Palmer made a documentary about Fonteyn, entitled simply "Margot" (2005). It includes interviews with Nureyef, Frekerick Ashton, Roland Petit, Ninette de Valois, Robert Helpman, Lynn Seymour, Fonteyn's mother and other relatives, and various members of the Arias family.
Main roles
- The Haunted Ballroom
- Cinderella
- Les Sylphides
Les Sylphides is a short, non-narrative ballet blanc. Its original choreography was by Michel Fokine, with music by Frédéric Chopin orchestrated by Alexander Glazunov. Glazunov had already set some of the music in 1892 as a purely orchestral suite, under the title Chopiniana, Op. 46...
- Don Juan
- Swan Lake
Swan Lake ballet, op. 20, by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, composed 1875–1876. The scenario, initially in four acts, was fashioned from Russian folk tales and tells the story of Odette, a princess turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer's curse. The choreographer of the original production was Julius Reisinger...
- Sylvia
Sylvia, originally Sylvia, ou La nymphe de Diane, is a full-length ballet in two or three acts, first choreographed by Louis Mérante to music by Léo Delibes in 1876. Sylvia is a typical classical ballet in many respects, yet it has many interesting features which make it unique...
- Apparitions
- The Firebird
The Firebird is a 1910 ballet created by the composer Igor Stravinsky and choreographer Michel Fokine. The ballet is based on Russian folk tales of the magical glowing bird of the same name that is both a blessing and a curse to its captor....
- Aida
- Birthday Offering
- Ondine
- Night Shadow
- Horoscope
- Pomona
- Pelleas et Melisande
- The Judgement of Paris
- Beauty and the Beast
- The Sleeping Beauty
- Gayanch
- Carnaval
- The Dying Swan
The Dying Swan is a ballet choreographed by Mikhail Fokine in 1905 to Camille Saint-Saëns's cello solo Le Cygne from Le Carnaval des Animaux as a pièce d'occasion for the ballerina Anna Pavlova. The short ballet follows the last moments in the life of a swan, and was first presented in St....
- Lysistrata
- Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet is a ballet by Sergei Prokofiev based on William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet. It is one of the most enduringly popular ballets...
- Giselle
Giselle is a ballet in two acts with a libretto by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Théophile Gautier, music by Adolphe Adam, and choreography by Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot. The librettist took his inspiration from a poem by Heinrich Heine...
- Garden Party
- A Wedding Bouquet
- In Nightly Revels
- The Wanderer
- The Quest
- Hamlet
- Les Demoiselles de la nuit
- The Fairy Queen
- The Nutcracker
Quotations
- "The one important thing I have learned over the years is the difference between taking one's work seriously and taking one's self seriously. The first is imperative and the second is disastrous."
- "Great artists are people who find the way to be themselves in their art. Any sort of pretension induces mediocrity in art and life alike."
- "Life offstage has sometimes been a wilderness of unpredictables in an unchoreographed world."
- "Genius is another word for magic, and the whole point of magic is that it is inexplicable."
External links