A Tribute to Margot Fonteyn, 23 May, 1979 - the programme

Women’s History in DanceEssays on DanceMargot FonteynFrederick AshtonChoreographersDance HistoryMost Popular

Sep 3

We all have items to which we refer as “our most prized possessions”, but it’s alarmingly easy to lose some of them over the years, especially with changes of address. On August 19’s Victoria and Albert Museum Zoom panel discussion of Margot Fonteyn with Monica Mason, Alfreda Thorogood, and Stephen Jefferies, I mentioned how friends and I waited at the stage door on May 23, 1979, the tribute to Fonteyn in celebration of her sixtieth birthday (which had occurred five days earlier). I’ve always liked to think that programme with those signatures was among “my most prized possessions” - but where on earth had it got to?

Hurrah! This evening, I found it, tucked between books. Just look at those autographs on the front page!:- Margot Fonteyn (centre) herself; Leslie Edwards (not only the one dancer from before her arrival in the company who was still a regular performing member of it, but also her closest friend among it); Michael Somes (her main partner in her prime, and the Royal Ballet’s chief régisseur for decades); and, at the bottom, Ninette de Valois and “F.Ashton”. (The evening was a quadruple bill of F.Ashton’s choreography, including the world premiere of his Salut d’amour à Margot Fonteyn, danced twice that evening and never again, though caught on film.

Inside are signature of twelve of the evening’s other leading dancers, including five of the seven Birthday Offering ballerinas,and the three Symphonic Variations ballerinas. A additional third-page fold supplied a fascinating list of the many ballets in which Fonteyn had danced with the Royal Ballet, going back to her 1934 debut in the corps de ballet. (They aren’t in the chronological order of her dancing them that they at first seem to be.) As the programme shows, she danced two ballets herself, neither on point: Salut d’amour (1979) and Façade (1931), the newest and the oldest on the programme; the other two were company classics in which she had created roles, Symphonic Variations (1946) and Birthday Offering (1956).

I was hoarse for two days after that performance: dewy-eyed, too. When the curtain rose on Salut d’amour, Fonteyn was simply sitting as if immersed in memory. The deeply poignant and touching angle of her eyes, head, neck, and back all spoke volumes - and then she moved, economically conjuring gestures and phrases from many of the ballets Ashton had made for her. Wave upon wave of recognition passed over us, combined with wonder at the range of moods and movement we saw. Yes, we were awash; yes, the applause was oceanic. Eventually, Ashton (who joined her at the end of the dance, tenderly leading his beloved muse into the wings and dancing the “Fred Step” with her) asked us “Would you like to see it again?” Reader, you can imagine our reaction.

Ashton was to create for Fonteyn one more time, Acte de présence (1984, made for an anniversary gala at New York’s Metropolitan Opera House, and subsequently danced at Covent Garden). No other relationship between ballerina and choreographer in history has ever lasted so long: fifty years, from the pas de quatre he added in 1934 to Les Rendezvous (1933), still danced today.

My own first live experience of Fonteyn was late, with a Juliet she danced in 1976, though I was able to see her in ten roles altogether, some of them more than once; and I seem to have spent large parts of my life in catching up with films and photographs of the many Fonteyn performances I missed. Every devotee of dance feels at the start of their attendance that they have just missed a golden age; I did. If they are lucky, they later realise that they have caught other golden ages; I did.

Friday 3 September