| Margot Fonteyn, a Prima Ballerina of her time, was born in 1919 in Reigate, Surrey, England as Margaret Hookham. She studied dancing in Hong Kong initially and later on went on to be under the tutorage of Serafima Astafieva, a Russian dancer and teacher at a ballet school that gave her her debut performance in 1934. She came to do most of the star performances that were earlier done by Alicia Markova and was soon the Prima Ballerina of the company of Sadler's Wells.
Her father was English and her mother was Irish of Brazilian descent. She changed her name from Margaret to Margot and her surname from Fontes to Fonteyn and so her stage name came to be Margot Fonteyn.
Her dancing was known to be technically perfect and with her sensitivity to music there was life and breath in her dancing. One of her best known roles was that of Aurora in Sleeping Beauty. She went on to become the President of the Royal Academy of Dancing and was conferred the title of Dame of the British Empire in 1956, becoming Dame Margot Fonteyn de Arias.
She had several performances with the Russian dancer Rudolf Nureyev during 1960 to 1970. She was given the exceptional designation of “Prima Ballerina Assoluta” by the Royal Ballet in 1979. Margot Fonteyn died in Panama City on 21st February, 1991. |
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