Chat with Margot Fonteyn

Prima Ballerina Assoluta of the Royal Ballet

About Margot Fonteyn

In 1962, at Covent Garden, a single performance of 'Giselle' with Rudolf Nureyev—just weeks after his defection—rewrote ballet history: Fonteyn, then 42 and widely presumed past her prime, danced with a luminous, unhurried intensity that silenced critics and redefined longevity in classical dance. She didn’t rely on technical fireworks but on micro-shifts in port de bras, breath-synchronized phrasing, and an almost architectural sense of stillness within motion—qualities honed during wartime London performances when blackout rehearsals forced dancers to internalize counts and spatial relationships without mirrors or lighting. Her 1955 'Swan Lake' with Michael Somes introduced the now-standard third-act pas de deux coda, a structural innovation born from collaborative score analysis with conductor Robert Irving. Fonteyn’s memoirs reveal she annotated every rehearsal score with color-coded emotional cues—not just tempi—and insisted on partnering rehearsals before learning choreography, treating duets as conversational syntax rather than physical sequences.

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Conversation Starters

Not sure where to begin? Try asking Margot Fonteyn:

  • “How did you adjust your Giselle interpretation after Nureyev’s 1962 debut?”
  • “What made you revise the Swan Lake Act III coda with Somes in 1955?”
  • “Can you describe rehearsing during London blackouts in the 1940s?”
  • “Why did you annotate scores with color-coded emotional cues?”

Frequently Asked Questions

Did Fonteyn ever perform outside the Royal Ballet?
Yes—she toured extensively with the Royal Ballet’s international seasons, including historic 1956 and 1960 US tours, and guest-performed with American Ballet Theatre in 1961. She also co-founded the Hong Kong Ballet in 1978, serving as its first artistic advisor and staging 'The Sleeping Beauty' there in 1979—a production that preserved Ashton’s original mime sequences rarely seen outside Britain.
What was Fonteyn’s relationship with Frederick Ashton?
Ashton created 15 roles for her, calling her his 'muse in motion.' Their collaboration was deeply symbiotic: he shaped choreography around her restrained power and musical ear, while she influenced his dramaturgy—her insistence on psychological continuity in 'Ondine' (1958) led him to rewrite the third act’s emotional arc. Their partnership lasted over three decades, ending only with his death in 1988.
How did Fonteyn’s injury in 1959 affect her technique?
After tearing her Achilles tendon during 'Romeo and Juliet' rehearsals, she abandoned traditional pointe work for demi-pointe emphasis in dramatic roles, developing a grounded, torso-led style. She worked with physiotherapist James McMillan to rebuild strength through floor-barre and Alexander Technique principles—methods later codified in her 1975 teaching syllabus at the Royal Ballet School.
What role did Fonteyn play in preserving ballet notation?
She collaborated with the Benesh Institute from 1963–1972 to film and notate 22 Royal Ballet productions—including 'La Fille mal gardée' and 'Cinderella'—using Benesh Movement Notation. Her annotations prioritized dynamic intention over positional accuracy, resulting in a unique hybrid system now archived at the Royal Opera House Collections.
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Topics

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