MARGOT FONTEYN. Handkerchief signed: "Margot Fonteyn" at
lower right portion. White cloth handkerchief, 9¾x9½, with white lace trim.
One of the world's greatest ballet dancers, Dame Margot Fonteyn
(1919-1991), born Margaret Hookham in Surrey, England, joined the Royal
Ballet (then Sadler's Wells Theatre) as a teenager. By 1939, Fonteyn, whose
name had been changed because Britain's popular ballerinas were either Russian
or French, was a star. Known for her lyric grace, her fame only escalated
with her 1949 tour of the U.S., where she performed Aurora in Sleeping
Beauty. In the 1940s, she danced regularly with Robert Helpmann,
but it wasn't until 1962, when she was considering retirement, that she was
matched with her best known partner, Soviet-born dancer Rudolf Nureyev.
On March 1, 1962, Fonteyn and Nureyev debuted in Giselle, and the
duo would later originate the title roles Kenneth MacMillan's Romeo and
Juliet (Fonteyn and Nureyev also starred in the 1966 film version of the
ballet and in the 1967 film adaptation of Swan Lake). In 1955,
Fonteyn married Panamanian diplomat Roberto "Tito" Arias, to whom she was
wed until his death in 1989. Fonteyn, who was created Dame of the Order of
the British Empire in 1956, gave her last performance in 1979. Slightly
creased. Fine condition.
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