Dame Margot Fonteyn’s name dominated British ballet for more than 40 years as one of the truly great dancers of our time and the most famous ballerina of the second half of the century. Her name is one part of the legendary partnership with Rudolf Nureyev, with Fonteyn becoming late choreographer Frederick Ashton’s muse and an iconic figure of the English classical ballet style of elegance.
Fonteyn’s career began when she auditioned successfully for the Vic-Wells ballet, making her debut in 1934 as a snowflake in Nutcracker under Dame Ninette de Valois. After Alicia Markova, the company’s first ballerina, left in 1935, Fonteyn eventually became the company’s (later becoming The Royal Ballet) Prima ballerina assoluta and succeeded in some of the great classical roles of ballet. By 1939 Fonteyn had danced Aurora, Giselle, and Odette/Odile, and had already created many roles for Ashton’s work. For 25 years their choreographer-dancer partnership produced most of her greatest roles and his greatest ballets.
The company took up residence at Covent Garden, first performing Sleeping Beauty and then Symphonic Variations and Cinderella, which sealed Fonteyn as national treasure and international star. Fonteyn then went on to tackle Tamara Karsavina’s (ballerina of Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes) title role in Firebird and created the characters of Ondine and Chloe. 1961 saw Nureyev journey to London dance Giselle with Fonteyn by invitation of de Valois, bringing to life one of the most famous partnership in the history of ballet. It is argued that Fonteyn’s career was extended by 15 years following the beginning of the partnership and she performed in many new ballets which were usually created to explore the dynamics of the partnership, the most famous probably being Ashton’s Marguerite and Armand.
Fonteyn gave her final performance in the early 1970s, and retired to Panama to live with her husband. She died of cancer in 1991.
The classic production Anything Goes is back on the musical theatre scene and is currently on tour across North America, visiting St. Louis, Washington, Schenectady, Toronto, Costa Mesa, Portland, Spokane and Seattle. This splendid new production produced by the Roundhouse Theatre Company will feature all the iconic tracks such as ‘I get a Kick out of You’, ‘It’s De-Lovely’ and ‘Anything Goes’, with the legendary Cole Porter the genius behind the music and lyrics of this sassy Broadway musical.
It has been announced that 2014, as the 30th anniversary of Jane Torvil and Christopher Dean’s Olympic Bolero performance, will mark the last series of Dancing on Ice. Torvil and Dean, the series’ mentors, felt it made sense to end the show, as a mark of the anniversary of their groundbreaking dance at the Sarajevo Winter Olympics.
Cirque du Soleil, the multi-faceted performance extraordinaire, has revealed its tour dates for 2013, beginning in July at the London 02. Running from 18 July to 10 November, the tour will visit cities and venues such as London’s Wembley Arena, Newcastle upon Tyne’s Metro Radio Arena, Leeds Arena, Liverpool Echo Arena and the Capital FM Arena Nottingham. This is aside from the international leg for Cirque, heading out to Palma de Mallorca, Spain, for the August part of the tour, and then to France and Spain from mid-November until Christmas.
Queensland Ballet has announced an exclusive season coming up for dance fans in Australia by obtaining two very current stars, each in their own respects, for new work in the coming year for the company. Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet will be staged and will star Tamara Rojo and Carlos Acosta for the season which will run from 27 June to 5 July 2014. This is fantastic for the company and a huge achievement for Queensland Ballet’s artistic director, Li Cunxin.
Becoming one of the BalletBoyz is arguably every young dancer’s dream. With their slick performances, immeasurable talent and famous good looks, it is no wonder that the group lead by Trevor Nunn and William Trevitt is going from strength to strength, and may have the answer to these young dancers’ wishes.
Kids Week, organised by the company behind Official London Theatre, Society of London Theatre, is now in its 16th year and aims to encourage families to experience the magic of theatre and welcome children through the West End’s doors. For 2013, the Kids Week team has announced a huge 34 top London shows as part of the line-up, offering free tickets to children aged 16 and under with every adult ticket purchased.
Ballet has taken a new leap into technology, with students from 18 international schools having performed together virtually at a conference in Toronto. The students from Toronto were linked through dance and livestream with dancers in Amsterdam as part of a curriculum Canada’s National Ballet School has worked into the Assemblée Internationale, a week-long conference in Toronto with student dancers from ballet schools around the world. As a collaborative conference, it will bring students together to form bonds and learn about working together just as they are thinking about where they will be dancing professionally in a few years, with technology central to what they do.