"Dame Margot" redirects here. For the medieval trouvère, see Dames Margot and Maroie.
Dame Margot Fonteyn de Arias, DBE, (18 May 1919, Reigate, Surrey, England - 21 February 1991, Panama City, Panama), the English assoluta, was considered the greatest ballerina of her time.

Dancing with Rudolf Nureyev and others
During the 1940s, Fonteyn had a long relationship with composer Constant Lambert which did not lead to marriage. In 1955, Fonteyn married Dr. Roberto de Arias, a Panamanian diplomat to London and playboy. Their marriage was initially a rocky one due to his infidelities. She was arrested when he attempted a coup against the Panamanian government. In 1965, a rival Panamanian politician shot Arias, leaving him a quadriplegic for the rest of his life.
The cost of his medical care is a reason why Fonteyn's career lasted until 1979, her sixtieth year, despite her suffering from an arthritic foot. Upon her retirement, the Royal Ballet honoured her with the title prima ballerina assoluta. She ended her days in Panama, remaining loyal to Arias in part because she was very devoted to his children from an earlier marriage. Because Arias's medical bills drained her finances, the Royal Ballet held a special "gala" in 1990 for her benefit. Shortly after his death, she was diagnosed with a cancer that proved fatal.
A dramatic image of her performing Swan Lake at the Bath Festival, Bath, United Kingdom, was captured by British photographer Des Gershon, taken secretly from the high gallery of the Theatre Royal, Bath, as she danced with the corps de ballet on the day she heard that there had been an assassination attempt on the life of her husband. The stress, worry and pain is clearly shown in her face with the remarkable single frame of a moment in time. View the image at http://www.digitalrailroad.net/desegershon/Common/PhotoDetailPage.aspx?msa=0&pid=8431822&slid=d1c16cf9-d4e7-4ff2-b114-88e92a933020&slididx=0&lid=0&rstid=1e679b88-6b6d-485c-921c-c9ea90be23ea&aid=1 and also http://www.photographersdirect.com

Relationships
Fonteyn was knighted (made a dame) in 1954 at the age of 35.
She was chancellor of the University of Durham from 1981 to 1990. The main hall in the Student Union building, the Fonteyn Ballroom, is named after her.
The folk group Eddie From Ohio has a song dedicated to her.
Fonteyn and Nureyev are lampooned in Will Vinton's A Claymation Christmas Celebration (1987) as ice-skating baltic walruses.
There is a school dedicated to Margot Fonteyn that bears her name. The Margot Fonteyn Academy is located just north of New York City (Peekskill) and it was founded by her close friend Ken Ludden who teaches the classical style of ballet favored my Dame Fonteym.
Fonteyn envisioned an international fine arts institution in which all of the arts would be studied under one roof. Her belief was that young artists of divergent fields of expression would enter into conversations about the core issues of art (expression, interpretation, focus, et cetera), and would consequently develop a deeper understanding of the artistic purpose of their endeavors. She and Ludden worked together to develop this concept for the last twelve years of her life.
"I do think it would be good to have artists studying side by side in the different disciplines instead of each group isolated in its own world....the objective would be to produce professional artists integrated from their school days with exponents of the sister arts. Many benefits would ensue, especially for ballet itself which is a composite of the four arts. The ideal would be Music, Dancing, (principally ballet and ballet related dancing), Painting and Drama. Those four are the basic elements oftheatre." --Dame Margot Fonteyn d'Arias (from correspondence with Ludden)
http://fonteynacademy.org/

Legacy

The Haunted Ballroom — Cinderella
Les Sylphides — Don Juan
Swan Lake — Sylvia
Apparitions — The Firebird
Aida — Birthday Offering
Nocturne — Ondine
Horoscope — Night Shadow
Pomona — Pelleas et Melisande
The judgement of Paris — Beauty and the Beast
The sleeping Beauty — Gayanch
Carnaval — The Dying Swan
Lysistrata — Romeo and Juliet
Giselle — Garden Party
A Wedding Bouquet — In Nightly Revels
The Wanderer — The Quest
Hamlet — Les Demoiselles de
The Fairy Queen — la nuit Quotes

Daneman, Meredith, 2005. Margot Fonteyn: A Life. The biography.