Author(s): Meredith Daneman

Biography

Margot Fonteyn, born plain Peggy Hookham, was dreamed into existence by the architects of British ballet- Ninette de Valois, Frederick Ashton and Constant Lambert. Carried to fame on a wave of wartime patriotism, Margot's sense of duty rather than ambition propelled her forward. Yet her gifts were such that her pre-eminence would come to eclipse the careers of subsequent generations. Ballet is a fairytale world; if Margot, like the pure and poetic heroine of Swan Lake, was a natural Odette, she would also have to contend with virtue's raw shadow-side in the guise of Constant Lambert, Roberto Arias and Rudolph Nureyev, the men who, like Von Rothbart, were to take possession of her heart.