Information
- BFI identifier431636
- Date1969-05-18 (Television)
- Production countryUnited Kingdom
- Production company
- SynopsisBALLET/DOCUMENTARY. A profile of ballerina Margot Fonteyn on her fiftieth birthday, with interviews from colleagues and excerpts from television recordings of ballets in which she has appeared. THE SLEEPING BEAUTY (tx 20/12/59): Act I Rose Adagio: Margot Fonteyn, John Chesworth, Bob Stevenson, Peter Wright, Jelko Yuresha. GISELLE (from MUSIC IN CAMERA tx 11/6/62): Act II pas de deux: Margot Fonteyn, Rudolf Nureyev. SWAN LAKE (from GALA PERFORMANCE tx 19/11/63): Act II pas de deux: Margot Fonteyn, Rudolf Nureyev. ONDINE (from GALA PERFORMANCE tx 22/4/66): Act I Shadow Dance pas de deux: Margot Fonteyn, Attilio Labis. ROMEO AND JULIET (from GALA PERFORMANCE tx 18/3/65): Act I balcony scene pas de deux): Margot Fonteyn, Rudolf Nureyev. Penman catalogue no. 128. Titles: "OMNIBUS presenting Margot Fonteyn" "Birthday of a ballerina" Margot Fonteyn and Rudolph Nureyev dance the pdd from Act II of Swan Lake (06:12). James Mossman on the character and early years of Fonteyn (07:16). ZO of Sadlers Wells (07:40). Ninette de Valois in empty stalls talks of her first sighting of Fonteyn (08:05). Sydney Harbour, Robert Helpmann- dancer talks about Alicia Markova, and how when she left, Fonteyn took her place as his partner (08:50). Stills. Fonteyn rehearsing. VO by Helpmann on her early promise (09:51). Sir Frederick Ashton talks of Fonteyn's beauty and grace. Stills. (10:20). de Valois talks of her early dancing promise (10.48). Stills of Fonteyn and Helpmann. VO Helpmann on their working relationship and their enduring friendship (12:04). Constant Lambert conducting (12:29). Helpmann on how Lambert developed Fonteyn's taste (12:50). de Valois on Lambert (13:16) Ashton on how Lambert gave Fonteyn an appreciation for music and art (13:38). Mossman on how the war curtailed her balletic activities (14:05). de Valois on taking Fonteyn out of England and to New York, Helpmann talks of her performance in Sleeping Beauty and her execution of the Rose Adagio (15:56). Fonteyn dancing the Rose Adagio (19:06). Stills of Fonteyn. VO about her lack of privacy (19:29). Roland Petit talks of his first sight of Fonteyn in Paris, and how he went to see her at the Champs Élysées dancing with Robert Helpmann in the Nutcracker, comments on her lighter side and her sense of fun (24:25). VO on her private life and her marriage to Roberto Arias. Stills (25:20). Petit on the loneliness of a dancer (26:04). Footage of Fonteyn and Arias disembarking from a plane and then meeting Queen Elizabeth II (26:44). Fonteyn holding her Dame of The British Empire medal and receiving her honorary degree from Oxford University (27:01). Fonteyn being interviewed by the American press about her husband and her friendship with Fidel Castro (27:40). Fonteyn interviewed about her involvement in the Panamanian revolution and about her brief arrest by Panamanian Police. Fonteyn questioned by British press (29:34). Fonteyn boarding a plane (29:42). Fonteyn's mother reading aloud a letter from Fonteyn (30:08). Arias' assassination scare. Shots of Arias on a stretcher. Fonteyn with Arias who is in a wheelchair, indoors and outdoors (31:20). Ashton, de Valois and Petit comment on her style and performances (33:56). Footage of Fonteyn dancing Act 1 Shadow dance pdd from Ondine (41:27). Ashton talks of Fonteyn's relationship with her leading men (43:09). Footage of Nureyev at the airport (44:33). Stills. VO by de Valois of the circumstances of their working together. (45:02). Act II pdd Giselle - Fonteyn and Nureyev (48:45). Fonteyn and Nureyev in a police station, after an incident at a roof-top party (52:02). de Valois on the relationship bewteen the two dancers (53:07). Nureyev on the years they danced together (53:14). Fonteyn and Nureyev dance the pdd from Act 1 of Romeo and Juliet (62:28 mins). (Shotlist)
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Title
Margot Fonteyn: Birthday of a Ballerina (Original)
Margot Fonteyn Tribute (Alternative)
Category
Non Fiction- Omnibus
Series Work - 768323
United Kingdom - TV - Non Fiction
- +Margot Fonteyn: Birthday of a Ballerina
Work - 431636 - 1969-05-18 (Television)
United Kingdom - TV - Non Fiction
- +Margot Fonteyn: Birthday of a Ballerina
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