Added: 5 years ago
From: ballettheatre
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  • Wow that was STUNNING.

  • Anybody know what year this was?

  • After that Swan Lake in Vienna, the applause went on forever (they got in the Guiness book of records for that purpose). And Dame Margot was 48. I saw them both quite often and I still marvel about it.

  • This means so much to me as Margot signed my ballet certificates many moons ago.

  • Quite appalled at some of the vile comments made here about such a beautiful artform, and the physical demands that are made on the performers. Even the coarsest of minds should at least be moved by the haunting music score.

  • me facina!!!!

    

  • If I ever become a mother, I will do what my wish my mother would have done when I was three, or seven, or eleven, all the way to the current eighteen years of my life and put me a ballet class. Even if she quits at one point, at the very least, she would have learned the basic foundation of grace.

  • were the fucks natalie portman?

  • Ouch! To be the last girl in the line :)

  • Best dancing combo EVER. And the reasons why I do adore Swan Lake ballet with all of my soul.

    Whenever Holy One Above was thinking about personified grace and perfection, sure Rudolf and Margot were taken and shaped as unbeatable example of it.

  • Happy Birthday, Dame Margot Fonteyn!

  • I find it sad that when I put a pictured of Margot in my art book as an inspiration, nobody knew who she was apart from me. Im a 14 year old girl who watches this instead of working, whilst everyone else watches parodies. This is a much better use of my time. x

  • gooddddddddddddddddddddddddddd­ddddddd

    

  • wow it's so amazingwow it's so amazing

  • this is so Beautiful!

  • I was just wondering, why all of the people who leave negative comments are watching clips about ballet in the first place. I never come on YouTube and watch things I don't like, just a thought - confusing :)

  • @tormentil30 because they DO NO UNDERSTAND OK!!

  • She is the most stunning and beautiful dancer. I can't believe how much strength and grace she has.

  • The world is a funny place

  • Just beautiful.

  • Yes.. I dance for him..Erica Brent..

  • waarom zijn er 5 kinderen moeten weggaan? wilden ze dat zelf of moest het?

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  • Maravilloso.

  • @meiro00102 you think THIS looks stupid? Notice how everyone puts a positive comment and you're the only negative =__= now THAT is stupid.

  • @meiro00102

    Your comment looks kinda stupid, too.

  • Wonderful and Great.

    Greetings Shalia583

  • indeed!classic!

  • wow she's good

  • i am not an expert, i don't even dance (love to but it's too late now ^^). but i think margot fonteyn really earned the title prima ballerina assoluta!

  • mcqueen you are so right! I am a dancer and although I'm only in middle school the senior footballers can't do a few of the simplest exercises we have to do!!! it is very true that ballerinas and gymnests are the strongest people in the world with more muscle per kilo than heavy weight wrestlers!

  • A personal favourite. Just beautiful. Strange though, im a 45 year old builder and i dare not tell my work mates that every evening of the week i watch ballet videos as i would get laughed off the job. Guilty pleasure i suppose.

  • tilerman. Your mates probably watch ballet videos also, and think you would laugh at them. :)

  • Hi tilerman,

    Good on you my friend, I love Ballet too!

    Those guys you work with are silly,in Ballet you have to be so fit, even a Football player could not keep up with a Ballet dancer with their very demanding fitness routine !

  • Continue to enjoy your ballet videos. Especially ones such as this with the two greatest (in my opinion) dancers ever! True magic.

  • My mother adored Margot Fonteyn and Swan Lake was a FAVE of hers. tilerman - dont feel guilty - it shows you are well-adjusted and aware of your Creative and Sensitive side - thats to be admired in a Bloke LOL

  • @tilerman

    Yeah, I know what you mean about it being a guilty pleasure. I'm seventeen, am a guitarist and singer in a grunge band, and people know me for my ability to defend myself in a streetfight. No one suspected that I love ballet, until I did my senior presentation on the subject.

  • @tilerman Me too! My husband thinks I'm looking at porn all this time, and then he laughs at me when when I show him my browsing history and its nothing but vintage ballet vids like this one - LOL.

  • @AuthenticNavyPeaCoat would your husband think you were odd if you were looking at porn all the time? or completely normal? really don't understand your point

  • @tilerman

    no, ballet is not for everyone. very nice for y if y like this things ! )

  • @tilerman No need to be ashamed of being laughed at...you just have good taste...;)

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  • @meiro00102 You think ballet is related to who you go to bed with? Do you really need to dislike and criticise ballet to feel a man? Then you can´t be a man by yourself, right? Ballet is a matter of sensibility and personal taste and it doesn´t matter who you fuck with. Choosing an art is like chosing between football or baseball, but your lack of sensibility won´t let you understand. You´ll have to find a wife stupid enough to stand you for at least 1 year. Good luck.

  • @meiro00102 so why are you watching this? How do you even know about ballet? Closet faggot perhaps?

  • @meiro00102 So you are bitter and angry and you dont know why! No problem to me. I meet people like you regular. As for your insults, can you do better? Been working on sites since i was 14 and heard much much better insults than yours, most a bit more up to date and a bit more smarter than yours aswell. Im not going to get into a slanging match with a stranger, but if you wish to do so go ahead. I will say one thing, sexually you may be in denial, dont fight it, you know you want to.

  • @tilerman once I was doing some kickboxing and I must say the people there were weaklings AND very unflexible compared to ballet dancers. Most men are just show-offs. They are insecure because they are suffering under their homophobia. A gay man wouldn´t do ballet because he would be afraid of that it would be too conspicuous. A "normal" man wouldn´t be afraid of something like this. Compared to ballet, kickboxing is pretty lame.

  • @tilerman ballet has a strange beauty about it - more power to those who can appreciate it

  • Tchaikovsky was my favourite composer when I was twelve. I know this because we had to write an essay,'My favourite composer', for our music teacher at the time. She later took us working-class kids to see a performance of Swan Lake at the theatre in Aberdeen. Miss Mitchell, you are a great teacher. I still think T. is great.

  • LOVE tchaicovsky's music!!! and beautiful dancing too ;D

  • Whenever I see these beautiful videos of years ago, I can't help but think how the dancers back then were much fuller and now they're like toothpicks. I wish it could be like back then because I wouldn't feel so self-conscious about all the skinny girls in my ballet school.

  • I'm with you. Too skinny is a distraction from the beauty of the dance. Margot has the best body and legs for dance and beauty.

  • Jason you are wrong!! My husband was a light heavyweight champion boxer and fought in the Empire Games in Canada. He was built like Nureyev and was very quick and light on his feet. He took ballet lessons for breathing techniques and muscular control. He also ran 5 miles a day and skipped rope for an hour at a time. He was a super athlete and all man. So you are quite incorrect in your assumation.

  • I was talking about the audience rather than the performers.

  • margot fonteyn is THE best dancer everrrr. period!

  • Notice her feet are not totally archy like ballet dancers are supposed to be these days? And yet she is so beautiful to watch. Margot Fonteyn is living proof that you don't need banana arches to be a beautiful dancer

  • @OttawaDanceCompany one of her British choreographers said that her feet were like pats of butter -not in a complimentarty sense either. However, I think she is ethereal-full of light.

  • I want to dance like she does it

  • Arte.

  • are you talking about Rudolf Nurejev's but?

    ...

  • yeah sorry for the spelling.

  • love the choreography! and the dancing is just...... unbelievable!

  • margot fonteyn is so beautiful when she dances!

  • very beautiful

  • Margot Fonteyn is so elegant, remember she was in her forties when she made this performance. Margot and Nurejev made a magical couple. Nurejev's choreography always seems slightly fussy to me, but in this production, he looks graceful yet still aerobic.

  • I actually saw them actually perform this as a child!!

  • @tbirdtricia I saw them in 1979 at the Greek Theatre in LA. They were spectacular even at their older age back then!!!

  • hahahahahaha! not sure if you are joking but that is hilarious

  • One has to truly appreciate The Artists to fully appreciate this great performance. Outstanding.

  • The BesT cOupLe!!!

    NuReyev nd FonTeyN!!!

    AmaZiing♥

  • Imagine getting to make love to Margot.

  • All due to Rebekah Harkness of the Harkness Ballet who brought Nureyev to the US. Margot Fontaine was the greatest Ballet Dancer of this century never to be surpassed.

  • This is absolutely beautiful!

    Excellent posting!

  • Oh! Breathtakingly beautiful. One perfect moment after another. Thank you Margot Fonteyn. Thank you Rudolf Nureyev. Unforgettable.

  • at least you can see the beauty between the two because some people just don't appreciate them.

  • Sad loss, no? Perfection IS perfection. Their dancing/artistic beauty is one of the wonders of the world. Timeless.

  • The comment above was in response to your comment, aputhemonkey6. I did click reply, but YouTube didn't link it.

  • bravura performance

  • Beautiful!

  • Hermoso : )

  • Simply splendid!!!!!  Perla.

  • They are absolutely amazing. I do not think their like will ever be seen again. They are also so beautiful looking.

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  • 4:20 just amazing!

  • 4:20 incredible!!! o.O

  • that attitude promenade is incredible!

  • hey which is the clip of swan lake that a girl was pirouetting on someones HEAD?? i forget the name and i want to add it as one of my favourites!!

  • Incomparable!

  • Nossa.. Parece coisa de desenho sabe, Barbie e o quebra nozes. Tah Perfeitoo

  • Todays technique is just so much better. She was lovely but it's almost painful to watch!! Shame on me but I have to say it.

  • I don;t believe we are watching the same ballet. Margot fonteyn was amazing her style her elegance put together with one of the worlds best male dancer nureyev. They were magic together.

  • what version of swan lake is this that has that beginning musical piece, I can't find it.

  • Incredible - watching him turn her on her toe with his hand is just magical...she was perfection...

  • her dancing was the best to me, he was amazing to me.

    simply beautiful

  • fonteyn is amazing !!

  • Both great dancers. Beautiful performance. I just miss the sparkle between the dancers. That magic of two people complimenting each other....Must be me...

    Anyway big Thanks for putting this on YouTube so we can see it.

  • i agree!!!!!

  • why would nureyev have chosen to dance with fonteyn if her technique was 'sloppy?' He was known for his perfectionismafter all!

    coraclewoman

  • Definately not. But she wasn't (thank god).

  • 4:24

    Wow

  • I saw Swan Lake at the Lowry Manchester a few years ago IT WAS TRUELY MAGICAL.....

  • Margot e Rudolf: sublimazione dell'arte del balletto.

  • E' veramente una gioia per gli occhi e per il cuore vedere ballare quei corpi aggraziati ed armoniosi, capaci di trasmettere gioia, emozioni ed entusiasmo, trasferendo un pò a tutti quella magia infinita che solo un'arte tanto speciale e ricca di poesia è in grado di suscitare nei nostri cuori.

    Grazie! Francesca

  • yo tengo ese video!!!

  • tambien!

  • living proof that you don't need crazy arches and rubber band extensions to be truely mesmerizing.

  • Ok saying "the" margot fontayns technique is bad is just simply beond a complete and utter joke! she is flawless and you cant take your eyes of her when she dances, shes is so elegant! herself and nurujev apear to be flouting

  • do you mean you dont like her technique well if you relised in that time the style was much different !!! i dont think you could do any better?

  • nothing is horrible about her technique infact its beutiful and graceful people who say its horrlibe are WRONG ,ballet would not be here without her!

  • simply stunning she's like a little bird, so light on her feet it's mesmerising.

  • I love Margot and Rudolf.

    Two of the best artists of all time...

    and certainly one of the best dance partners of all time.

    Absolutely beautiful :)

  • thats true!

  • how could you ever say that you must have no sence of dance to say that thats the wost thing anyone could say well if she was so bad why would she be famous huh? you better use ur brains next time :(

  • i really like baleh :)

  • she has a great technique for that time! 1 of the best...

  • Maravillosos!

  • divino

  • I must agree with andante and dansjeoy. Although her extensions are limited, they would've been the beauty of the day. Things evolve and because of that, you just have to deal with what ballet was like at that time. But regardless of the changes in ballet, it is still a beautiful thing to watch, she just has to watch her knees.

  • ohhhhhh, we have a new little queen in youtube!!Someone who comes here to state: Margot Fonteyn Has Horrible techniche(?????!!!!!!!)...LOL.­Like if we didn´t have enough already...

  • if your going to insult me do it with correct spelling especially on a word as simple as TECHNIQUE

  • vale: Técnica, ya está!Te lo digo en mi idioma,a ver si te enteras Contreras

  • I'm curious - so please indulge me. What exactly is "HORRIBLE" about Margot Fonteyn's technique?

  • For that time her technique was great! Without her ballet wouldn't be what it is today. Besides: What do you think matters more, technique or artistry?

    And your technique is certainly not better by the way!

  • That was meant as a reply to mitchellcbridge's "she has horrible technique"

  • margot is great i just wish she changed her facial expression'

  • Isn't this gem from the DVD - that was in Vienna too?

  • don;t forget that for in those days she probably was the most flexible, let's face is time has moved on and the extesions we see nowadats are amazing and very beautiful if you ask me. The old movies are classics and we should respect them but everthing evolves and so does ballet, let's respect the past and just deal with the future. and let's be honest those who often do not like the flexibility are often those who can't achive it so just don't be jealous and work with what you've got

  • I couldn't agree more Colly11. However I must say that technique should and does evolve, but it "should" always be accompanied by artistic values. Fonteyn changed ballet history with her intelligent approach to dancing. I'm sure many will look at this and find it dated and unexciting- that's a shame.

  • I like it that she doesn't have the crazy flexible extentions that you can see now days; I know flexibility is required for ballet, but she proves you do not need to be super duper felxible to become one of the best. Some people can only strecth so far, no matter how hard they train, and being a top ballerina shouldn't be confined to just those who can touch their nose with their feet from behind.

  • Fueron unos bailarines maravillosos, que lastima que no continuen entre nosotros.

  • Margot doesn't dance ballet, she IS ballet.... I love her the best out of all my favorite dancers because she proves that you don't have to have the best extensions, or the greatest flexibililty to become a famous ballerina

  • actually he was rooting the girl he was dancing with... doush

  • que genios!! Rudolf y margot grandes bailarines de la historia de la danza!

  • To me ballet is not about hitting your head with the feet...I mean it was with Dame Margot that poetry became ballet.God bless her.

  • A dancer who had the lines, the control, the fluidity and total command of the stage as she did, didn't need to 'wow' her audience with hyper-extensions and gravity-defying leaps. Fonteyn WAS ballet. A natural.

  • she looks like Audrey Hepburn!

  • If you can remember Audrey Hepburn, you must be as old as the hills like me! LOL!

  • well.........i do still watch My Fair Lady and Breakfast at Tiffany's. Roman holiday, too, but not often..

  • Yes! Back when there was "Civilisation" in the West!

  • oh really?

  • lol i don't regard my self as old lol but i love all the golden oldies, from musicals & film & ballet, something different in quality rather than look at me but they let their talent/gift show & they had beauty on top of their talent.

  • LOL. I know these movies tooo , I'm 24!

  • Their craft was for years rather here today & gone tomorrow artists! each era had its quality & today its alot of add ons to help rather than artistry gift; it isn't always about techniques. the old days was about gift & making us believe through their eyes bodies & movements!

  • These two are still my favorite ~ never sacrificing grace for acrobatics.

    And, as a former dancer, it's hard on the feet, knees and hips.

    Bambi

  • I love watching ballet. I even took lessons as a child but quit shortly after. How beautiful but totally taxing physically and the poor toes! Could really disfigure your feet.

  • what an amazing piece of ballet to watch. Real ballet.

  • Jane Sanig and Paul Thrussel with London City Ballet were sensational in Swan Lake. Janes movement en pointe was best described as fluid. If only there was a video of the two of them dancing. Jane is now a tutor in London and Paul is a Principal Dancer in Florida. If anyone out there has any film of the two of them or are fans, drip me an E-Mail

  • Dame Margot was Numero Uno in her day, and fully deserves the compliments below. But in comparison with some of the modern ballerinas, she falls a little short, in my opinion. I wasn't moved the way I am in this scene by Gillian Murphy, Svetlana Sakharova, Ekaterina Maximova, (damn! I forget the name.) that gal in the Paris Ballet, and others.

  • Ekaterina Maximova is contemporary to Margot..two very different dancers. To me you can't really compare Zakharova or Gillian Murphy to those two great ballerinas, they had something that made them really special

  • I'm sorry to say I agree with you. Could you possibly be missing Sylvie Guillem?

  • Yep. That's whom I meant by the gal in the Paris Ballet.

  • Margot has got something that these four haven't got. It's called art. She makes this ballet very special. It is not simply a floor display in some gynamstics competition, where the participant is marked by judges. That's why Nureyev wanted to dance with her and why she is an assoluta, and they are not.

  • actually she's darn good for a 42 year old, but i find myself agreeing with u

  • hermosa muy hermosa la coreografía, admirablemente hermosaaa

  • Very nice choreography -- usually Nureyev's choreography is too busy, but this is restrained, musical, poignant.

  • Exquisite! Like they are still will us x

  • they are amazin!!!!

    i just saw a show yesterday with 2 dancers that reminded m a lot of them!

  • And did you know that Magot Fonyen was once insturcted by Mathilde Kschessinska, one the greatest prima ballerinas of pre-revulotionary Russia at her studio in Paris?

  • I love Mathilde's dancing. My grandmother saw her in Paris and though she was a good dancer. She did not think Margot Fonteyn was up to that standard. She did like Yvette Chauviré and of course Ulanova.

  • They are absolutly mesmerizing togehter

  • Margot Fonteyn; what a breathtaking dancer!! One of the best compliments I ever got was when a fellow dancer told me I reminded them of her. Only in my dreams will I ever be anything like her, but it still touched me. :)

  • I think there's a little bit of the Margot Fonteyn essence in all dancers.

  • adorable...

  • charming,indeed!

  • when was it filmed?