Forever Fonteyn: a new biography and two new DVDs.

Margot Fonteyn: A Life

Meredith Daneman.

New York: Viking Press, 2004.

544 pages, illustrated, hardcover. $32.95.

The Sleeping Beauty 

Video Arts International.

87 minutes. $39.95.

Cinderella

Video Arts International.

75 minutes. $39.95.

Who was the great, the iconic ballerina of the 20th century? There are plenty of contestants, aren't there? Anna Pavlova, Tamara Karsavina (the only two serious contenders I didn't see dance), Galina Ulanova, or, surely the most unlikely, Margot Fonteyn. And yes, there are many, many others; in such a largely subjective game you can almost select and defend your own winner. But face it, it would be hard to find one of any real credibility more unexpected than Fonteyn. Yet many--particularly in Britain and America--would unhesitatingly grant her the palm. I know I would. Even if (always the critic) hesitatingly.

However, this almost ugly duckling, born in England as Peggy Hookham and getting her first serious training in Shanghai, did become a swan, indeed a swan queen of queens, who in 1979, at the age of 60, was awarded the still unique title of Prima Ballerina Assoluta of Britain's Royal Ballet. Yet she was an unlikely star. It was a dancing career that began in 1934 as a snowflake in the Vic-Wells Ballet's production of The Nutcracker and ended (and I was present at her very last appearance) in 1986 in Miami, Florida, with the Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet, walking with consummate grace as the queen in the The Sleeping Beauty--an incredible full circle taking in more than a half century.

Perhaps the crucial reason for this professional longevity, and certainly the impetus for her to improve technically after the age of 40, itself a virtual impossibility, was her superstar partnership with that Tartar defector from the Soviet Union, Rudolf Nureyev, 19 years her junior. Although there have been many biographies and studies of Nureyev himself, we have had to wait until now--discounting Fonteyn's own fascinating but lavender-laundered Autobiography--for a serious work on Fonteyn herself. This, at last, has come with Meredith Daneman's carefully researched, stylishly written Margot Fonteyn: A Life.

Although from the famous and beautiful dust jacket portrait by Houston Rogers our Dame Margot looks the picture of gentle innocence, she was, as Daneman demonstrates in contrast to the lady's own autobiography, no vestal virgin. (Few prima ballerinas are--and not only prima ballerinas.) But it has not been Daneman's intent to write one of those sensational tell-all stories (which in the end always seems to tell very little), even though there are some passages and language that might startle the very young. While there are a few, very minor factual errors, the general span and scope of the book, not to mention the detailed portraiture of the ballerina in her world, are admirable. This is a major biography, by an ex-dancer trained at The Royal Ballet School who has also written several novels, of a very great artist and will prove a lasting addition to the serious ballet library.

But, for future generations, for whom Fonteyn is more myth than memory, just how did she dance? Daneman quotes sagely and does her best. But however clearly we are introduced to Fonteyn the woman, Fonteyn the dancer hardly leaps off the page. Unfortunately Fonteyn--like Nureyev--was never well-served by the camera. They were dancers of visual impact rather than visual perfection, and their level of technical skills, often cruelly revealed by the basilisk camera, were onstage and in person always beautifully transmuted by their artistry. Even so, something worthwhile still emerges from the video record.

It's fascinating that just issued--in black and white, in place of the original color--are two DVDs, taken from NBC telecasts of the 1950s. They show Fonteyn, with her partner Michael Somes, leading The Royal Ballet in Ashton's The Sleeping Beauty and his Cinderella, both in somewhat truncated versions. The production values are not high, but who cares? For example, in both ballets Fonteyn's prince does not even get to dance his solo. On the other hand, Fonteyn in all her effulgent glory is caught extreme and wonderful. Here was the bounce, perfect proportions, and idealized classical style that conquered America. Both DVDs reveal the unique Fonteyn radiance, particularly characteristic of the pre-Nureyev ballerina, better than any other video (apart possibly from her movie of Ondine). This alone makes them pearls almost without price.