CriticalDance Forum

Would anyone be able to help me find out about a former dancer of the Sadlers Wells Ballet by the name of Anthony Pannell. He was a soloist and was apparantly a former partner of MargotFonteyn. I would appreciate any information anyone could locate.
I would be interested to have a list of all of Margot Fonteyns partners.

<small>[ 08-31-2002, 20:51: Message edited by: gypsy ]</small>

Have you look on the books about FONTEYN of GORDON ANTHONY ??

And now it seems she is being used by sensationalist documentary makers as well.

Having now seen the South Bank Show’s contribution to the ‘misinformation about Fonteyn’ movement that has flourished since her death, I am amazed that a two-part documentary could take such a vibrant figure as Margot Fonteyn and turn her into some sort of spineless victim. The biographical facts used in the film were very selective and didn’t add up to a rounded personality. If the producers of this were seeking a tragic casualty of the dance world they could have more easily have found the sort of story they were seeking by looking elsewhere. The South Bank Show is supposed to be an arts programme and therefore an appropriate place to delve more into the professional side of her life (there was little about the astonishing artistic rapport she had with Frederick Ashton for example) but instead what we got was an easy option celebrity bio-pic. I suppose this is inevitable as how many media people of today have a comprehensive knowledge of ballet?

Margot Fonteyn loved life and loved dancing and if, as I have been led to believe, that love turned to a love/hate relationship at some point in her later career, that is hardly surprising as the one thing that the film did get right was the reliance on her earnings by her crippled husband after his ‘assassination’. Tito Arias emerges as the villain of the piece with nothing good said about him at all, but he was an absolute charmer with the ability to make a woman feel she was the most interesting person he had ever met. A technique that found him a ‘mistress’ even when paralyzed and wheelchair bound. That he captivated Fonteyn isn’t really surprising - he was the most practised womanizer after all.

The other man in Fonteyn’s life who intrigued the filmmakers was Rudolf Nureyev, with some silly speculation that he once got her pregnant. The Fonteyn/Nureyev partnership was so remarkable that I’m sure it will continue to intrigue people for years to come, but no one will ever be able to say with any certainty whether they were actually lovers or not. In her recent biography of Fonteyn, Meredith Daneman wisely comments that love can take many forms, and bearing that in mind I believe they loved one another deeply and that that love was played out onstage to give birth to a legend.

The film clips of Fonteyn were lovely and I can understand why Clive Barnes wept when remembering her, I think of her often and miss her tremendously. She had an unforced technique that was perfectly controlled and always seemingly subordinate to her interpretation of a role. She was never showy, but in the right role she could dazzle and was fortunate to have lived at a period when artists were both loved and respected. Seeing her now on film for the first time, I know that many people, and especially dancers, are rendered almost speechless with admiration. What a shame that her memory is being sold so short.

The Muse Graces Us
Margot Fonteyn at Cornish College of the Arts
by Dean Speer

We were never more excited and thrilled than the time the great Margot Fonteyn came to Cornish [Seattle, Washington] to rehearse during a tour she was undertaking with the New London Ballet. She appeared in two pas de deux with David Wall: The Balcony Scene from Kenneth MacMillan’s “Romeo and Juliet,” and the Grand Pas de deux from Act III of “Sleeping Beauty” – two roles with which she was closely identified.

Fonteyn came to Cornish to use the main ballet studio up on the third (walk-up at the time; no elevator until much later) floor as it had the most marvelous sprung wooden floor. It was the best space for ballet in Seattle at the time – mid-1970s. Plus wall-to-wall full-length mirrors along one side and a small grand piano, pitted with drink marks and cigarette burns. The place had character and class – not to mention great views north and south (this Cornish building sits on the cusp of a hill).

This was the one day all classes were canceled, adding to the aura of excitement. Nor were we allowed to stay in the area of the studios or to even think about watching.

But we got to glimpse her from afar. The Chair of the Dance Department at the time, Karen Irvin, drove off in her enormous car [a petite person driving a big, honking vehicle] to pick up Fonteyn and be not only her taxi but hostess. Smartly dressed and coiffed for working, the goddess made her way into the historic halls – where even Pavlova visited in the mid 1920s. A photographer captured her exit, chatting with Irvin but still very much aware that she was “on” to her viewing public and adoring ballet student fans.

Attending one of the two performances was equally thrilling. Her work with Wall in the Balcony Scene made me literally gasp and the Pas de deux from “Sleeping Beauty” worked its magic. Even though her arabesque penché was not all that deep, she used every inch of the music. I recall she was facing stage left, and lifted herself up, reaching her gaze well beyond her arm as she began the penché sequence. She then began her ascent with an elegant lift of her head, keeping her leg where it was. Totally textbook perfect.

I knew it was special then to be able to enjoy her artistic dancing and all the special things that Fonteyn embodied. I’m even more aware now of that legacy and know how privileged I was to witness a little bit of our balletic history in the making.