Dame Margot Fonteyn

Dame Margot Fonteyn, DBE
Margot Fonteyn in the 1960s
Born	Margaret Evelyn Hookham (1919-05-18)18 May 1919 Reigate, Surrey, England
Died	21 February 1991(1991-02-21) (aged 71) Panama City, Panama
Cause of death	Cancer
Resting place	Cremated remains buried in a garden cemetery overlooking the Panama canal
Nationality	British
Occupation	Ballerina
Employer	Royal Ballet
Known for	Ballet
Title	Prima ballerina assoluta
Spouse(s)	Roberto Arias

Dame Margot Fonteyn de Arias, DBE (18 May 1919 – 21 February 1991), was an English ballerina. She spent her entire career as a dancer with the Royal Ballet, eventually being appointed Prima Ballerina Assoluta of the company by Queen Elizabeth II.

Fonteyn was born Margaret Evelyn Hookham on 18 May 1919 in Reigate, Surrey. Her father was a British engineer; among his family were people in literature and music. Her mother was half Irish and half Brazilian, the daughter of Brazilian industrialist Antonio Fontes. Very early in her career Margaret took the name by which she was known all her life, "Margot Fonteyn", with surname derived from "Fontes", also adopted by her brother—Portuguese "fonte" is "fountain" in modern English, "fonteyn" in Middle English. Her later formal married name was "Margot Fonteyn de Arias", in the Spanish-language tradition.

At four years of age her mother signed her and her elder brother up for ballet classes. At age eight, Margot travelled to China with her mother and father, who had taken employment with a tobacco company there; her brother Felix remained at his school. For six years Margot lived in TianJin, then in Shanghai, where she studied ballet with Russian émigré teacher George Goncharov. Her mother brought her back to London when she was 14, to pursue a ballet career. Continuing to work in Shanghai, her father was interned during World War II by the invading Japanese.

In 1933 Fonteyn joined the Vic-Wells Ballet School, the predecessor of today's Royal Ballet School, training under the direction of Ninette de Valois and such teachers as Olga Preobrajenska and Mathilde Kschessinska [Krzesinska]. After starting with the Vic-Wells Ballet, she rose quickly through the ranks of the company. By 1939 Fonteyn had performed principal roles in Giselle, Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty and was appointed Prima Ballerina. She was most noted in the ballets of Frederick Ashton, including Ondine, Daphnis and Chloe, and Sylvia. She was especially renowned for her portrayal of Aurora in Tchaikovsky's The Sleeping Beauty (televised versions of Sleeping Beauty and Ashton's version of Cinderella are available on DVD). Fonteyn also worked with choreographer Roland Petit and, later in life, Martha Graham. When the Royal Ballet toured the United States in 1949, Fonteyn instantly became a celebrity for her performances.