Prime mover: Margot Fonteyn centenary – in pictures
One hundred years after her birth, join us as we step back in time to celebrate the life of the Royal Ballet’s prima ballerina assoluta
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Margot Fonteyn was born in Reigate, Surrey, in 1919 as Margaret ‘Peggy’ Hookham. In 1928, as a result of her father’s work, the family moved to China, where she studied under George Goncharov. She returned to England in 1933 and the following year joined the Vic-Wells Ballet at Sadler’s Wells, London.
Photograph: Roger Wood/Royal Opera House
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When Alicia Markova left Sadler’s Wells in 1935, Fonteyn took over many of her roles and went on to develop a great partnership with Robert Helpmann. Here, she plays Ophelia in Hamlet in 1942, in which Helpmann played the titular role
Photograph: Gordon Anthony/V&A Images/Alamy
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During the second world war, the Sadler’s Wells Ballet performed to entertain troops and bolster morale. In this 1943 photo, Fonteyn and Leslie Edwards perform in The Quest
Photograph: AP
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With peacetime, in 1946 the company relocated to the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. In celebration, Frederick Ashton devised his acclaimed ballet Symphonic Variations. Here, Fonteyn (front) dances with Michael Somes, Moira Shearer and Pamela May
Photograph: Baron/Getty Images
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Also in 1946, Fonteyn starred in Les Sirènes with Helpmann, left, and Ashton, right
Photograph: Baron/Getty Images
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Fonteyn in 1946
Photograph: PA
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In the years following the war, Fonteyn became an international star. She performed in Paris, and in 1949 Sadler’s Wells Ballet toured the United States, where she won glowing reviews. Here, with Helpmann, she performs The Sleeping Beauty
Photograph: Granger/Rex/Shutterstock
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Fonteyn and Somes in Ravel’s ballet Daphnis and Chloe at Covent Garden in 1951
Photograph: Baron/Getty Images
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Seen here in The Firebird in 1956, the year Sadler’s Wells Ballet received a royal charter and became the Royal Ballet. The same year, Fonteyn became Dame Margot, on being awarded the DBE
Photograph: Baron/Getty Images
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A photoshoot frames Fonteyn in a window in Granada, Spain
Photograph: Baron/Getty Images
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A rehearsal for Ondine in 1958. The Ashton ballet about a water nymph was created with German composer Hans Werner Henze
Photograph: Bettmann Archive
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Russian ballet prodigy Rudolf Nureyev defected from the Soviet Union in 1961, and was offered a place at the Royal Ballet. He danced with Fonteyn in 1962 in Giselle (they are seen here in rehearsal) and their pairing was hailed as a sensation. They became a hot-ticket partnership for years to come, until Fonteyn was in her late 50s, well beyond the usual span of a prima ballerina
Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
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Fonteyn laughs at Nureyev’s antics during rehearsals for a charity ballet in London
Photograph: Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images
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Margot Fonteyn, photographed by Jane Bown of the Observer, in 1964
Photograph: Jane Bown/The Observer
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Fonteyn’s husband, the Panamanian diplomat Roberto ‘Tito’ Arias, was shot by a political rival in Panama in 1964. They are pictured here in 1965, on his return to their London home from Stoke Mandeville spinal injuries hospital
Photograph: Express/Getty Images
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Nureyev and Fonteyn in Marguerite and Armand, 1968, created for them by Ashton, based on a Liszt sonata
Photograph: Reg Wilson/Rex/Shutterstock
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Fonteyn and Nureyev rehearse a scene from Martha Graham’s ballet Lucifer at New York’s Uris theatre in 1975. Graham choreographed the piece for the pair to dance at a benefit performance for her Martha Graham Center for Contemporary Dance
Photograph: Dave Pickoff/AP
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Fonteyn with fellow dancers including Wayne Sleep, right, in 1977 outside the Russian embassy in London, demanding that Nureyev’s family be allowed to visit the west
Photograph: Keystone/Alamy
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Fonteyn at home in Panama, where she retired from dancing and had a second career as a cattle rancher. She died in 1991. Margot Fonteyn: A Celebration is at the Royal Opera House on 8 June
Photograph: Mike Forster/Alamy
