From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dame Margaret Evelyn de Arias
DBE
(
nee
Hookham
; 18 May 1919 – 21 February 1991), known by the stage name
Margot Fonteyn
, was an
English
ballerina.
[1]
[2]
She is widely regarded as one of the greatest classical
ballet
dancers
of all time.
She spent her entire career as a dancer with the
Royal Ballet
, eventually being appointed
Prima Ballerina Assoluta
of the company by
Queen
Elizabeth II
. This is an honour rarely given to a dancer. The highest rank in the Royal Ballet today is
Principal dancer
. Fonteyn's appointment as a Dame commander of the British Empire is the female equivalent to a
knighthood
.
Fonteyn danced until 1979, when she was nearly 60. This is unusual for any dancer, male or female. Her career was expected to end round about 1960, but it was reborn by a new partnership with a Russian dancer who had escaped from the
Soviet Union
. He was
Rudolph Nureyev
, one of the three greatest male ballet dancers of the twentieth century. Though he was 19 years younger than her, the partnership flourished, and was called "the most famous partnership in ballet history".
[1]
p188
She married a
Panamanian
politician in 1955. He survived an
assassin
's bullets ten years later. She continued dancing to raise money for his upkeep. The marriage was not happy; he had a
mistress
. However, the couple remained married until his death in 1989.
Several films were made of her performances.
- Various photos and early film clips
[1]
- 1955
The Sleeping Beauty
: with Michael Soames (NBC, colour). A black and white version is available on DVD.
- 1958
The Nutcracker
: with Michael Soames
- 1960
Swan Lake
: a colour film of her with Rudolf Nureyev as the Prince
- 2005
Margot
: a documentary with filmed interviews with Nureyev, Frederick Ashton,
Roland Petit
,
Ninette de Valois
, Robert Helpmann, Lynn Seymour, and others.
- 2009.
Margot
: BBC 4, dramatised biography with Anne-Marie Duff.
- 1976 Margot Fonteyn
Autobiography
New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
- ↑
1.0
1.1
Crane, Debra and Mackrell, Judith 2000.
The Oxford dictionary of dance
. Oxford University Press. p187/8
- ↑
Obituary
Variety
, February 25, 1991.
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