Margot Fonteyn and Rudolph Nureyev - Black Swan PDD from 'Swan Lake'

[brwneyesaz]

this is perfection and the chemistry is magical. I will always their dancing videos and history together.

[nickwallacesmith]

hi brwneyesaz - yes, i keep coming back to my videos of them - perfection in their way - so glad to have seen them so often as a kid. cheers!

[floresdelaluna]

Watch and learn Igone de Jongh!

[nickwallacesmith]

hi floresdelaluna - exactly! cheers from sydney

[spk21]

Not easy for Margot to bear comparison with Nureyev ! One is a great dancer, the other had just the merit of being Anglo Saxon. Very small level compared to Russian ballerinas . Poor man !

[nickwallacesmith]

hi spk21 - i think it's just that Fonteyn had a different quality to the Russians - who greatly admired her. i have a photo of Irina Kolpakova and Natalia Makarova lining up for her autograph in Leningrad during the 1961 royal ballet tour. and Makarova speaks of her great admiration for this legendary ballerina in her documentary 'Ballerina'. her qualities are subtle - and worth looking for. cheers

[DarkAngelsForever]

@spk21 And yet he wanted nothing else than to dance with her when he first came to London, and their partnership was one of the most perfect ones in history of dance...

[nickwallacesmith]

@DarkAngelsForever - yes, i think he realised their very different styles would be part of a chemistry - that they did in fact have to an astonishing degree.

[FASHIONCONSPIRACY]

Bravo ! They were exquisite !!

[nickwallacesmith]

@FASHIONCONSPIRACY - they were - and they are missed - a great deal

[9415908]

Absolutely magnificent! Fonteyn had such beautiful arabesques! By themselves they are wonderful but Nureyev and Fonteyn together is just unbelievable, they compliment each other so perfectly!

[nickwallacesmith]

hi 9415908 - they come from such different ballet traditions and cultures but somehow they seem to compliment each one so perfectly - i love nureyev's often intense passionate abandoned approach as a wonderful foil to fonteyn's cool british restraint, though under the russian's influence she 'thawed'. can watch them over and over!

[balletbonnie01]

Fred Astaire pronounced Nureyev's name with an American accent! That's so NOT

"Fred Astaire", if you know what I mean.

[drrabner47]

Hi jazzi000....Margot was 46 here and Rudy was 27.

[Jazi000]

how old was she here?

[nickwallacesmith]

hi Jazi000 - 45

[zdiversable]

This is not their best performance, but i still enjoyed the video. Fonteyn and Nureyev are the greatest Russian dancers in history...their chemistry makes me emotional.

[nickwallacesmith]

hi zdiversable - i agree - and also about the chemistry thing. the most telling thing nureyev said in this respect was that he projected his performance to fonteyn and that this was powerful in turn for the audience - i really don't get moved by dancers who try to communicate directly with the audience. cheers for 2012

[pj10128]

@zdiversable Margot Fonteyn was English, not Russian

[mssonnet26]

I don't particularly like this black swan, she is not a seductive and overpowering as I would like her to be. Nureyev overpower her movement and seem to be the one to have seduce her.

[nickwallacesmith]

hi mssonnet26 - on stage at coven garden she was warmly and dangerously seductively alluring - tv studio performances mostly don't work.

[mssonnet26]

@nickwallacesmith Yeah, perhaps it is so.

[nickwallacesmith]

hi mssonnet26 - but i agree with you here, cheers

[drrabner47]

Nick....Thought the same thing...'flexirina' What a great word to describe some of these 'great' ballerinas. They can lift their leg high, do many 'tricks.' But NONE have the phrasing or the beautiful in-between steps as Fonteyn. Keep posting!

[nickwallacesmith]

hi drrabner47 - will do and nice to have a fellow non-flexarina companion! cheers

[me2totoo]

i dont see anything so amazing from them even if nureyev had a tragic life with imigration from his home country and all that that made him a "great dancer" not trying to be negative.

(sorry for the spelling)

[nickwallacesmith]

hi me2totoo - if it's just technique that one is after then fonteyn falls short, though she had highlights - it's more in the beautifully musical phrasing and the creation of a character and story telling that's the thing.

[0Angelfromheaven0]

Now this is good video that shows a ballerina. Hope people can see that a lot of other videos are 'flexirinas' and not ballerinas. There should be more dancers that dance with their heart and soul instead of with their moves and flexibility

[nickwallacesmith]

hi 0Angelfromheaven0 - my thoughts exactly and why i upload some many of fonteyn's performances - pity i didn't think of your term 'flexirinas' - i'm very fond of it already!!!

[Firestarjude]

(Continued) I'd just like to add that although I think Fonteyn was best appreciated live, she is so perfectly in character in this clip that it is truly a lesson in how to dance this role. Young dancers would do well to educate themselves to be able to see beyond such trivialities as high legs and the superficial, artificial mannerisms that generally pass for "acting" these days.

[porcelain100]

@Firestarjude DAMN RIGHT!!!!

[Firestarjude]

Rather amusing to read some of these negative comments...we should all be so lucky as to dance that well at 46! And even more amazingly, over the next ten years, she kept getting better, her technique rising to meet the standards of the day. When one considers how much changed between the start of her career in the 1930s and when she retired in the 1970s and that she kept up with all of it, in addition to aging 40 years, it is truly extraordinary.

[nickwallacesmith]

hi Firestarjude - i totally agree - dance is more than just technique. as frederick ashton said, anna pavlova did not have great facility - she did have the great ability to transform herself into into an idea of a role. and fonteyn doubters are probably not going to suggest that it's hard to see what anyone saw in this great russian dancer.

[nickwallacesmith]

(cont.) hi Firestarjude again - on stage her white swan was extraordinary, really - she emoted was such power and restraint the pathos required - in so many performances i see on YT the ballerina is 'dead' in the role - it's just the dance.

[hallabak10]

@nickwallacesmith, Margot was at least 42 years old in this clip. I saw her live with Nureyev when she was near 60 years, It was amazing. It was her technique and her passion. The fire between the two HOT. They had something that dancers now don't have, nothing to do with technique. Hard to put in to words-video can't capture. They danced. No circus act. She raised the bar in her day. Now pro dancers have passed what was considered exceptional technique then. Read her book.

[nickwallacesmith]

hi hallabak10 - i saw margot as a kid in 1970 (i was the kid, not her!) - she was in her early 50s and defying age - the power of her performance was in its totality - she could still do amazing balances (strictly technique in the traditional sense?) but it was the perfect line and placement of the body, the musicality, the palpably real and engaging characters she could create ... and her general loveliness

[MrMusikkenner]

@nickwallacesmith Hello. I also had the great Pleasure to see Dame Margot Fonteyn and Rudolph Nureyevd dancing Swan Lake at the Govent Garden in London-1973. The Theater was ,full House,not 1 emty Chair. ,The Applaus after the Performance was just unbeleavable and both were showered with Flowers trown on to the Stage.. We had to leave after 35 Minutes of Applaus-to catch our Tube back to Finchly. A Evening we will never forget.

[nickwallacesmith]

hi MrMusikkenner - !!! - i saw those 'swan lakes' in 1973 and recall the flowers - i think daffodils (?) - my family and i stayed till the end - i think i remember them bringing down the safety curtain to clear the theatre. and i think it was the first time fonteyn substituted for the fouettes - a circle of turns around the stage. wonderful memories! cheers

[MrMusikkenner]

@nickwallacesmith Hello. Thank you for your comment. After searching my Brain, i recall that I saw Rudolph on that Evening. Standing in Front of the Entrance,the Poeple suddenly went Oh see-! and turned to the right. In a small Alley on the right,Rudoph jumped out of his 280 Mercedes waved shortly and off he went in the Stagedoor. A real good looking Man i must say. The Alley was bright from the Streetlights..

[nickwallacesmith]

hi MrMusikkenner - i remember him coming out of the stage door of covent garden and this great stage presence shrunk to quite a small person - still a big personality though and good looking as you say, cheers from sydney



[MrMusikkenner]

@nickwallacesmith Hello to Sydney. Yes Rudolph was not very tall. But wen he was dancing and jumping around the stage-he was a Giant.

By the Way-i was living in Sydney in a Apartment in Googie ,but that was a loooooong Time ago-1974!

[nickwallacesmith]

hi MrMusikkenner - yes, a giant among (often) dwarfs. ok, have relatives in coogee - i'm in rushcutters bay now - moved a bit closer to the city. but i've been a traveller and ex-pat quite a lot - china for a year, france for a couple of years all up, london for 5 year, and more recently the philippines for 7 months. in 1974 i was in adelaide, which does seem a long time ago now!

[amiciopera]

@hallabak10 she was 46 yrs old born 1919, Dame Fonteyn the best  a real jem. may here soul rest in Movements with the other great artist of the theatre

[AndoraLesley]

I don't think it's so much technique vs. flexibity, or whatever you want to call it, but the time period had changed. For the time period that Margot and Rudi danced in, they had supreme technique. However, dance evolles, as it should, and changes over the years. A proper piroutee in the 1940's was extermerly crossed, nowadays it would be incorrection. Margot and Rudi were the ultimate for their time, but nowadays more flexibity is expected.

[Whyville101]

@Poet2916 it's Ed Sullivan. From the Ed Sullivan show back in the day.

[dansergurrl123]

I'm sitting here trying to understand my so many people are enchanted with her. I just don't see it. I don't think that means that I have no eye for beauty, I have just been exposed to amazing technique and personality from younger dancers. To be perfectly honest, her technique is bad. I am looking hard to find that charm and beauty that everyone insists she posesses, but I just don't see it.

[nickwallacesmith]

hi dansergurrl123 - i guess in this context i'm thinking of frederick ashton's comment (when interviewed by makarova for a doco) that pavlova didn't have a great technique - the extraordinary thing about her was not that she had a better technique than other dancers of her day. watching fonteyn as i did it was the musicality, the less than obvious phrasing, the character she could create and so on. great technique can be a great thing - don't get me wrong. cheers

[spiderorchid81]

@dansergurrl123 I know what you mean. She had great stage presence but wasn't really a very good dancer (she even said so herself in her autobiography). The Paris Opera has ballerinas at the moment that are far more brilliant in technique and acting abilities than Margot Fonteyn. She was a personality and she and Nureyew were a very good team, that's why people loved them so much, I think.

[alexandra1234584]

@dansergurrl123 You have no taste.

[spiderorchid81]

@alexandra1234584 Tastes differ. No need to be rude to someone who has a different opinion than you. ^_^

[Poet2916]

I think that's Fred Astaire introducing them! *squeals in delight*

[margondine]

I'd rather watch Dame Margoit and Rudi over modern technicians with their 'let's do a splits arabesque at every opportunity' any time mentality. Sometimes less than 90° is perfect.

Fonteyn was to ballet what Audrey Hepburn was to films: grace and beauty personified. She also had a very strong classical technique for the standards of the time, and wore her shoes very soft: no high-tech aids there.

[nickwallacesmith]

hi margondine - i couldn't agree with you more - i watched an interview some time ago in which maximova and vassiliev discussed this very point of view - too much focus on pure technique. cheers

[vladimmir100]

Conscientiously tried to find signs of antiques, but then realized it was just bad.

[nickwallacesmith]

hi vladimmir100 - you tried and that is the main thing - cheers

[MrKLT1945]

Dear Saint Nick: - Pardon typos - senior moments come thick and fast these days!

[nickwallacesmith]

hi MrKLT1945 - i'm sure senior moments don't come to you as often as they do to me! i find that vigorously polishing my new halo gets the little grey cells working again though. so thanks very much for your restorative gift! in fact i'm going to go out shortly - and i'll drop into my local halo emporium to see if i can one for you - what is your size?

[MrKLT1945]

@nickwallacesmith Small head - but the rest of me is no longer RB corps size, sadly! Make mine a girly pink one, please! I still have a very old tutu of mine 'rescued' (don't ask) from the ROH over twenty-five years ago. Size 17 inch waist - those were the days, and not an anorexic in sight.

[nickwallacesmith]

hi MrKLT1945 - i suspect none of us have our girlish figures from corps days! and speaking of your very smart halo colour choice, i'm so tempted to get out some red finger nail polish and attack mine! and talking of ballet drag that's made it's way to the back of the wardrobe, i still have some tights, slippers and ... 'piece de resistance' ... a jock strap. which i bring out into the full light of day occasionally as a great curiosity.

[helenaprice]

This is me, dying.

Goodness, they truly don't come like that anymore. I'm all for supporting your nomination for sainthood. This clip is certainly a miracle.

[nickwallacesmith]

hi helenaprice - yes they don't - i feel so lucky to have had the live theatre experience of this magic partnership - and being part of the audience reaction.

two votes for sainthood now - i fell well on my way! thanks for that - LOL

[MrKLT1945]

Thank you a million times for posting this. No, thank you a zillion times! I'm putting you up for a sainthood.

[nickwallacesmith]

hi MrKLT1945 - great you like the footage - i couldn't have not uploaded it! excited about my elevation to sainthood - i hope i can caryy off the halo with some style. cheers!

[Vaninasanta]

Absolutely amazing! Thanks for posting such beautiful piece of art :)

[nickwallacesmith]

hi Vaninasanta - i loved fonteyn in 'swan lake' almost more than anything - the perfect construction of the contrast between the white and black acts - glad you liked the upload!

[moonshinemaude]

fred AND nureyev! heaven, i'm in heaven....

[Lizzitarock]

In the past, male dancers have more spotlight! i wish i could happen now!

[nickwallacesmith]

hi Lizzitarock - yes, rudi used to put men more on an equal footing with women - in his 'nutcracker' at the royal ballet they dance side by side and for pretty much equal time

[MrKLT1945]

@nickwallacesmith Yes, the greater prominence male dancers started to get is down to Rudi. One leap in Paris for freedom, one giant leap for male dancing. I am polishing the halo for you.

[nickwallacesmith]

hi MrKLT1945 - yes, as wayne sleep so aptly put it 'he put men on the map' (in the dodo 'fontyen and nureyev - the perfect partnership') - i think it's nowhere better seen that in his 'nutcracker' for the Royal - where the male is often dancing the same steps as the woman and beside her - and the man gets lots more dancing too. now the halo is beautifully polished and pristine, i'm trying to decide whether to wear it at a rakish angle or go for a more look - what do you think? LOL

[MrKLT1945]

@nickwallacesmith Definitelyat a rakish angle, as Rudi would have done! BTW did you get to see the exhibition in Paris after his death - his personal belongings incl. manuscripts, ballet shoes, even the chest sash he designed and made for his Corsaire? Fascinating and moving. I consider myself luck y to have born at the right time for the art of ballet. Now too much like circus contortioist tricks on display, a lot less artistry, phrasing etc. lol

[nickwallacesmith]

hi MrKLT1945. a rakish angle it is. when you say as Rudi would have, exactly. i recall him in london wearing a more than totally exotic mink helmet with a series of mink legs dangling in a spiral down from the crown - a worthy forerunner to a halo. we seem similar in our ballet going careers. i began watching as a kid in london round 1970 - and saw Rudi in various places round the globe - paris (swan lake with makarova), milan (giselle with fracci) and sydney for one of his last tours in 1992

[MrKLT1945]

@nickwallacesmith Now I let my age out of the bag! I did Masterclass with Rudi as teacher, despite only being a lowly corps member. Made all feel like prima ballerinas! He had a sense of humour not all saw. Did you know he always maintained his favourite partner was the glorious Patricia Ruanne? (Festival, now English National Ballet). I consciously stopped watching him when he was getting on - too sad to see him past his prime. Still a marvellous choreogropher - my fav. isd his Cinderella .

[nickwallacesmith]

hi MrKLT1945. i think my age hasn't been in the bag for some time! and i'm pretty pleased about being so knowlegeable and wise ... and not arogant at all about it - LOL!

but seriously i used to see Patricia Ruanne with the royal's touring company - i think the last thing i saw her in was 'pineapple poll' - do you think my memory is playing games with me here? round 1972.

...

[nickwallacesmith]

... sadly i saw rudi in 1992 in 'the moor's pavane' which he toured australia - having seen him in the early 70s i was quite shattered and didn't know he was so ill at the time.

yes, i'd heard he had a wicked sense of humour - often one characteristic of a famous person is drawn out to very unfairly define them.

lucky to have been is his masterclass, very very!

best

nick

[MrAzdigs]

Nick, thanks alot for this...it is much appreciated. True beauty.

[nickwallacesmith]

hi MrAzdigs - isn't it - i look at quite a lot and don't seem to tire of it - glad you like it too

[jgh37]

If this ballerina called Margot Fonteyn applied to be corps de ballet today she would probably be turned down!! lol...

[nickwallacesmith]

hi jgh37 - technique has definitely improved - but for me fonteyn had something more than technique - the beautiful and meaningful way of phasing movement to music, take care, nick

[letsskitri]

@nickwallacesmith you said everything. Thank you.

[nickwallacesmith]

hi letsskitri - very happy you liked seeing it again!

[tigereyes5]

@nickwallacesmith

True, but I think that Ekaterina Maximova not only had great technique at that time but also wonderful artistry and musicality.

[nickwallacesmith]

hi tigereyes5 - she did - i saw her with Vladimir Vasiliev in 'giselle' in paris in 1972 or 1973 with the Bolshoi on tour - perfection!

[ddchil41]

@jgh37

There was a different style in those days...and there is something Margot had that today's ballerinas do NOT.

Phrasing. and beauty in her movement.

[teenovels]

@jgh37 you do realize she would have been taught differently, there for she would have mastered todays style of ballet and probably become a principle, becuase she has that great presence of stage, AND works her ass of

[oreopie090]

for some reason i dont like it.....owell!

[nickwallacesmith]

hi oreopie090 - there are always performances by even our favourite dancers that we don't like - i never liked fonteyn in 'raymonda'

[jgh37]

@oreopie090 You don't like it because...quite rightly...it is truly awful as everything she did.

[TheMikehattan]

A bit jerky but you can see the connection between these two dancers.

[nickwallacesmith]

hi TheMikehattan - i saw them a lot as a kid and the connection, as you say, was palpible

[ai51inn]

Hi Nick, I agree with you about Mr B's dancing sticks - you just made me laugh! I hadn't noticed Margot's weight changes - unlike Lynne Seymour's, but even with their fuller figures, both oh so beautiful, and musical, and lyrical......I could go on........oh and thanks for posting this rare footage. Gorgeous.

[nickwallacesmith]

hi ai51inn - yes, and balancine liked a pretty extreme turn-out - gelsey kirkland on film demonstrated the feet almost turned back - exaggerating of course but nevertheless

i saw lyn seymour dancing and carrying a lot of weight - a 'romeo and juliet' with nureyev - it was great in that the role was really mounted on her and it was wonderful to see how she role - more impulsive, wild, young like the young really can be

[ai51inn]

@nickwallacesmith Oh Nick that must have been amazing to see! I've seen the clip here on YouTube with her dancing Juliet with David Wall and she is pretty wild in that! I do find her dancing exciting - she's great with Nureyev in Giselle especially the mad scene - but I have only seen her dancing through film footage and DVD.

[nickwallacesmith]

hi ai51inn - fonteyn's juilet to nureyev's romeo was wonderful to see - a treasured memory for me!

[ai51inn]

@nickwallacesmith Oh yes, of course - I have only watched this on DVD and every time I do the tears well in my eyes and I get a lump in my throat, only Nureyev & Fonteyn do this. Oh so sublime! A perfect moment!

[nickwallacesmith]

hi ai51inn - yes, it was very emotional watching them together - precious memories!

[HazyHayli]

She was amazing...

Her weight fluctuated so much though.

Interesting.

[nickwallacesmith]

hi HazyHayli - yes, it did - i liked her with a fuller figure - i guess my reaction to balanchine's dancing sticks!

[KALEIDOSCOPEN]

i adored her

[nickwallacesmith]

@KALEIDOSCOPEN - so do I!

[nickwallacesmith]

hey kopynd - yes and well beyond what most people would be - to be admired in no small extent for that

[kopynd]

she was devoted to her husband