Margot Fonteyn The Beginning of Prima Ballerina Assoluta

 

Photo Credit: Sadler's Wells teenage dancer Margot Fonteyn in Frederick Ashton's Apparitions, 1936
costume by Cecil Beaton from Ballerina Fashions Modern Muse by Patricia Mears

Margot Fonteyn, born Peggy Hookham to an English Father and a Brazilian mother, grew up in her native London, England, and Shanghai, China, when her family moved there. In both countries, Fonteyn took ballet lessons. She continued to pursue ballet when she moved back to England with her mother. Fonteyn's mother, Hilda Hookham, enrolled her daughter in the Vic-Wells Ballet School, which Ninette De Valois founded. The press noted how involved Fonteyn's Mother was in her career growing up directing her. The British Press knew she was a critical figure for Fonteyn's career.

 Margot Fonteyn was open to learning and influence in the industry. Ninette De Valois saw Fonteyn was excellent at taking direction and used this to make her into one of the leading British ballerinas. Valois saw this type of dancer as what her company needed to promote British ballet.

Fonteyn was known to become the characters she played, giving all of herself to the role. The first headline she did showcased this when she played the lead role, Giselle, in 1937. She didn't have international stardom until her North American tour, where she played the lead Aurora in the Sleeping Beauty Ballet. Her take on the role bringing her grace, technique, and artistry to the role of Aurora, brought her so much success.

Fonteyn danced so many memorable roles like Giselle, Aurora, Firebird, Odette, Odile, and many other parts during her extensive career, which were all raving successes. She also didn't just dance on stage, but she reached an even bigger audience when ballets started appearing on television. Fonteyn became even more recognized by not just the public but the Press. 

Still, the press, specifically the tabloids, were not only interested in Prima Ballerina Assoluta's dancing but her personal life too. They were interested because she wasn't married, and they found something strangely obsessive with that fact when she was in her thirties, just like the press did to Anna Pavlova in interviews before she was married. In fact, in a British Vogue, a columnist commented this about Fonteyn's personal life.

"At 33, this vivid dancer, half English, half Brazilian, has no hobbies and no husband. There is only dancing in her life... Beautiful clothes, drinking champagne, enjoying good food, the theatre, opera and jitterbugging are some of the things Margot relishes when not thinking about dancing." - Quote from British Vogue 

I noticed this article seems confused because it's talking about her teenage years, not her adult years, but you will see in this quote from Margot Fonteyn what I mean.

"I remember very well the evening before I danced my second-ever performance of Giselle, when I was 17, and there was this big annual ball. Ballet or no ballet, I wasn't going to miss that, and I had a marvellous time until about two or three o'clock in the morning. Throughout the evening, people kept coming up to me and saying, "Margot, what are you doing here? You're dancing Giselle tomorrow; you should be in bed resting."

 

'What, and miss all the fun," I replied.

"This sort of thing has made me realize that I've never been a dedicated dancer. I don't think I've had the temperament to be totally committed to ballet to the exclusion of what happens in the outside world."- Quote from Margot Fonteyn on her teenage years.

It's very clear after reading Fonteyn's words the columnist comment is referring to when she was a teen because their article describes all the things she talks about doing when she was a teenager. Though they make the reader think that is what she's doing as an adult, which is not the case. It just shows you how out of touch the writer was with Fonteyn.

 

I discovered since Fonteyn was a star, the press became more critical of her. The press even said she was now public property. But did this give them the right to say whatever they wanted, no matter if it was true or not or how it would affect the article's subject? I don't think they were entitled to do that and it only put more pressure on Fonteyn to be perfect which perfectionism was something she struggled with.

I don't think any dancer would find it a problem that a dancer focuses solely on their dancing. If that is what they enjoy and brings them happiness. Dancers who want to work on their dancing, that will only help their careers or fuel their love for dance and help them embody it. Anna Pavlova always said, "That an artist makes sacrifices for their art."

Interestingly, those comments about Margot Fonteyn stopped when Fonteyn married the Ambassador to Panama in the 1950s. Although the remarks stopped that nature, the tabloids and the press were now interested in Fonteyn the Ballet international star and the Ambassador to Panama's wife. Two roles Fonteyn devoted herself to.

Although I feel and a lot of people feel that she was very dedicated and devoted to her work, Fonteyn herself didn't see that in herself instead, she struggled with perfectionism to an extreme which seemed to make her not share the same thoughts as others felt about her as an artist. 

I think she had so much pressure as being recognized as a global star and representing British Ballet that she had to be perfect and would not accept anything but perfection even if demanding of that herself caused herself stress. I feel perfectionism also affected her personal life, trying to be the ideal wife and ambassador's wife. You see here in her words her feelings on that subject.

"I've never possessed the ability to live only for dancing. I work hard, yes. Very hard. I have a terrible sense of responsibility. If somebody asks me to do something, I hate to do it badly."- Margot Fonteyn on her Perfectionism.

It just shows Margot Fonteyn, like all people, had struggles and faults. She wasn't some frivolous woman like the article made her out to be. She was hardworking to the point she demanded or expected perfection from herself because that's what the public wanted from her, which is why I think so many other people saw her as flawless. After all, she put all that effort and work into her dancing and every facet of her life, just like her role model Anna Pavlova did. Margot Fonteyn was seen that way because that's what she demanded from herself, and that's why her technique and artistry are so flawless because of all the hard work she put into it, not because of magic. I think both Nureyev and Valois recognized that about her that she was a hard worker in everything she did especially her dancing.