Margot Fonteyn: ballet star, sex, politics

Born Margaret Hookham (1919–91) in Surrey, she showed early promise at ballet which her mother encouraged. Margot's fath­er worked for The British American Tobacco Co., so the family moved to Sh­anghai. Her mother brought her back to London when she was 14 to pursue ballet, and once she chose to abandon school comp­letely, she chose Mar­got Fonteyn for more re­fined, professional name. 

Helpmann and Fonteyn

Façade 1936, Wiki

In 1934 she joined Sad­ler’s Wells Sch­ool. When Alicia Markova left the Co. in 1935, Fonteyn took her roles and developed a fine partnership with Aus­tralian dancer-choreo­grapher Robert Hel­pmann into the 40s. The Help­mann part­ner­ship helped to dev­elop her theat­ric­al­­ity.

Inspired by a Markova performance in Les Syl­ph­ides, Margot devoted herself to ballet full time. Sadler's Wells Director Ninette de Val­ois spotted the lass and gave her the pr­in­cipal roles in Giselle, Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty.

Although Fonteyn’s dancing seemed very innocent, she apparently had many lovers. Her affair with the married older cond­uctor Const­ant Lambert was problematic, due to his alcohol and women. And when Mar­got visited Cambridge Uni in 1937, she met Roberto Tito Arias (1918–89). The young law stud­ent from Panama fasc­in­ated her, so the pair enjoyed spending time to­get­her for the week. But when he return­ed to Panama, they ceased com­mun­ication.

 Throughout WW2, Margot danced nightly and sometimes daily, to ent­ert­ain troops. In Sep 1940, as the London Blitz began, Sad­l­er's Wells Theatre was turned into an air raid shel­t­er. The Co. was temp­orarily displaced, so in 1940 they went on tour to Eur­ope, start­ing in Hol­land which was full of Germans. When the bombing started, the dancers had to be rescued by a car­go boat.

In 1946 the Co. moved to the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden. One of Fonteyn's best roles was Aurora in Tchaik­ovsky's Sleeping Beauty, the bal­let that became a signature production for the Co. and a major role for Fonteyn. Reprising Aurora in 1949 when the Royal Ballet tour­ed the U.S, Fonteyn instantly became a celebrity with Americans.

On another American tour in 1953, Fonteyn re-met Tito Arias when he surprised her, after seeing Sleeping Beauty. Arias was now a pol­it­ic­ian and Panamanian delegate to the United Nations. Although he had a wife and 3 children, Arias win­ed and dined her, and bought her fur coats. She re­sisted, but in 1955 they married in Paris!

Arias and Margot, 1965

whosdatedwho

 Fonteyn became Pres­ of the Royal Academy of Dance, and was made a Dame of the British Empire in 1956. Tito had been appointed an amb­assador to the Court of St James, so Fonteyn also fulfilled a dip­l­omat's wife duties. In 1956 she was critic­ised for performing in racist Johannes­burg, and she and Tito were also criticised for be­friending Imelda Mar­c­os & Nor­iega. Was it to help Tito in his schemes to obtain power in Panama? She did believed her husband would become head of Panama, and that she would the Queen.

In April 1959, Arias staged a failed coup d'état again­st Panama’s President Ernesto de la Guardia, ? with the support of Fidel Castro. Fonteyn said the plot was hat­ch­ed in Cuba in Jan 1959, with Cas­t­ro promis­ing to assist Arias with arms or men. During a sea voyage, Arias jumped ship while Font­eyn used her own yacht, to divert the government forces. She returned to Panama City to turn herself in, and meeting at the prison with the British ambassador to Panama, she confes­s­ed her involve­ment. While the Bri­t­­ish Foreign Office got her to NY, Arias hid in Brasil’s Panama embassy and got safely to Peru.

As a retreat from London, the couple bought a house Taplow Bucks

in the 1950s, Daily Mail Aus

Just when she might have retired, Fonteyn began her greatest artistic partnership. In 1961 Kirov Ballet star Rudolf Nureyev defect­ed in Paris and was invited to join the Royal Ballet. Fonteyn was given the opportunity to dance with him in his debut, but she was reluctant be­cause of the age gap. They first performed together in Gis­elle in Feb 1962 where Fonteyn dis­covered new energy, and thus the par­tner­­ship late in her car­­eer won them both worldwide fame. Her per­f­­ect line and lyricism were qualities evident in the roles created by Sir Frederick Ash­ton eg Ondine, Cind­er­ella, Chloë. Ashton created Marguerite and Arm­and for Nureyev and Font­eyn in 1963, a signature piece.

Nureyev said that they were lovers; Fonteyn said not. Nonetheless Margot wanted to divorce her fickle husband Arias in 1964, so she was happy to tour with Nureyev and The Australian Ballet in Stuttgart. Alas Margot learned that a Panam­anian politician had shot Arias. Fonteyn, though shaken, still dan­ced before going to Panama.

This was lucky because, despite planned retirement in her 40s, Arias was now quadriplegic and Margot had to keep earning. Luck­ily her part­ner­ship with Nureyev gave her a new lease of life and pro­longed her career by 18 years.

Fonteyn went into semi-retirement in 1972 with one-act per­f­ormances and she also mov­ed into modern ballet, dancing in 1975 with the Chi­c­­ago Ballet. She fully retired in 1979! For her 60th birthday, Fonteyn was feted by the Royal Ballet, dancing a duet with Ashton and a tango with Helpmann.

Fonteyn and Nureyev 

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 In 1989, before Arias’ death, Font­eyn was diag­nosed with ovarian cancer. Having used all her savings to care for Arias and now retired, she had to move to a remote Panama cattle farm. But she st­ayed in touch with Nu­r­­eyev via tele­phone. By 1990, she’d had 3 oper­at­ions and had to sell her treasures to pay for her care; thankfully Nur­eyev helped. A Covent Gar­dens gala raised money for her where Placido Domingo sang & Nureyev danced. After her Feb 1991 death, Fonteyn and Arias were buried in Panama. A memorial ser­vice was held in Jul 1991 at Westminster Abbey.